Switch to reusable dishes… Are fast foods far from ready?

• It's one more step to get out of everything disposable.

  As of January 1, meals taken on site in restaurants with more than twenty covers must be served in reusable dishes.

• If this measure applies to everyone, from company canteens to the brewery, the challenge applies above all to fast food.

  The introduction of reusable tableware calls into question the organization and the very economic model of these fast food restaurants.

• At McDonald's as at Burger King, two giants in the sector, we have been working on this transition for three years: "90% of our 1,530 restaurants will be in the nails on January 1", we are assured in the first sign.

  And the others ?

The design is globally the same, and we stay on the iconic red of the sign… You have to take in hand the cone of fries from Mc Donald's to measure the change.

Exit the cardboard.

The packaging is now plastic.

"Tritan," said a McDonald's spokesperson.

A derivative of plastic which has the advantage of being very solid and of withstanding repeated washing.

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This same material is used for the other containers present on the trays of McDonald's in Levallois (Hauts-de-Seine).

From fries to drinks, including salads and frozen desserts.

Only the burger is an exception.

"For food safety and handling reasons, it is still allowed to wrap it in food paper," said the same McDonald's spokesperson.

180,000 tons of annual waste for fast food

This restaurant is not unique.

Still others among the 1,530 that the brand has in France have already made the same changes.

Will all of them have done so by January 1?

The anti-waste law for a circular economy (Agec), adopted in 2020, imposes it.

From 2023, meals eaten on site in restaurants with more than twenty covers will have to be served in reusable dishes.

This measure applies to all restaurants, from the school canteen to the brasserie.

“But the challenge exists above all for fast food restaurants whose switch to reusable tableware calls their economic model into question,” says Diane Beaumenay-Joannet, lobby manager at Surfrider Foundation Europe.

And the sector is a big generator of waste.

It "serves around 6 billion meals a year, in around 30,000 points of sale throughout the country, which generates 180,000 tonnes of annual waste, 55% of which is for on-site consumption", explained NGOs, including Surfrider, in a grandstand at

, December 4.

The transition will not begin on January 1.

In recent years, fast food restaurants have had to sort their indoor waste.

Or even abandon certain single-use plastics such as straws.

Switching to reusable tableware is one more step, but much more complex this time.

“The challenge is immense”, even slips Muriel Reyss, director of communication at Burger King.

Like McDonald's, the chain says it has been working on it for three years and has also chosen, after several tests, reinforced plastic containers*.

"In tritan and polypropylene," says Muriel Reyss.

Collect the dishes after the meal

But the choice of materials was perhaps the easiest.

A more difficult challenge is to manage to make space in the kitchen to insert a washer and dryer.

“Not easy, especially in restaurants in the heart of town, which are sometimes cramped, slips the spokesperson for McDonald's.

Reorganizing these kitchens and sometimes going so far as to request permits for expansion represent much larger investments than the purchase of reusable dishes.

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And then for the new system to work, do restaurants still have to be able to collect their dishes at the end of the meal? It may seem trivial, but Steve Broutin, from Hub One**, one of the companies that restaurants in this transition to reusable tableware, makes it a crucial issue.

“Between the part put by mistake in the trash and the part that simply disappears, the losses can be significant for a restaurant, he observes.

Up to 3,000 euros per month for some.

Muriel Reyss confirms the issue.

"In pilot restaurants where we had equipped the crockery with an RFID chip, we saw significant losses in the first two months," says Burger King's communications director.

She explains it, essentially, by the need for customers,

to get used to a new sorting gesture.

“It is often necessary to provide for a reinforcement of staff in the dining room, at least in the first months”, we also note at Mc Donald's.

Few signs ready on January 1?

It remains to be seen whether the fast foods will all be ready on January 1?

"90%, yes", we answer McDonald's, specifying that the remaining 10% are mainly restaurants in the heart of the city or located in stations and shopping centers.

Where the transition to reusable tableware is the most complex to manage.

For Burger King, Muriel Reyss assures that, out of its 470 restaurants, around fifty will have taken the plunge by the end of the year and "that the deployment will be massive in the first months of the year, with the hope of 'achieve 100% by the end of the first quarter'.

So much for these two heavyweights of fast food in France.

If they will not be in the nails on January 1, they still seem better launched than others.

“Many brands took it very late, in particular when they learned, a month ago, that the government did not intend to postpone the measure, indicates Steeve Broutin.

And then the international context is tense.

It is not enough to order this reusable tableware, manufacturers must also be able to produce it.

The Hub One expert expects delays.

"For the very large brands (KFC, Starbucks, Burger King, etc.), there will be no subject, the transition will take place, if only because there is a strong image issue, behind it, for these chains, he believes.

It will be more complicated for medium and small-sized fast food outlets which do not have the same financial foundations.

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NGOs put pressure

NGOs are even more pessimistic.

Hence this platform at the

to call for respect for the law.

“If the government is voluntary, it does not announce so many controls to date, begins Diane Beaumenay-Joannet.

Side brands, apart from Mc Donald's, very few have communicated on the subject.

The fear then is to relive the same mistakes as in waste sorting.

“We had to wait many years and alerts from citizens and NGOs for fast food restaurants to finally get started,” recalls the lobbyist at Surfrider.

"Spent a few months, we will check in the restaurants", she warns, a way of saying that the NGOs do not intend to let go of the pressure.

Positive point all the same, for Diane Beaumenay-Joannet: "This issue of re-employment speaks much more to the French than five years ago".

This is also the opinion of Steve Brutin.

As a result, brands are themselves more sensitive to it.

“Some are already starting to prepare for the next step,” he says.

Or the transition to reusable dishes, including for meals served outside.

We will come there.

Probably more around 2025.” “Everything in its time,” they say at Burger King.

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*"This choice of reinforced plastics is the one made by most major fast-food chains," says Steeve Broutin, solution expert for Hub One.

Other restaurants concerned have nevertheless opted for other materials.

In particular stainless steel for central kitchens (school canteen, companies...).

But also porcelain or glass containers for brands that wanted to move more towards the top of the range.

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** Hub One notably develops software and solutions that allow the restaurant to ensure the traceability of their dishes.

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