Reuse and its new frontiers
By J. Peyceré, Cetie Secretary General
Following the 2020 French anti-waste law for a circular economy (AGEC) and the efforts made by certain stakeholders to make large-scale reuse possible in France, this year Cetie announced the creation of a working group on “Reuse of containers designed for food and beverages”. This group, which is international in scope, held its second meeting in October, attended by the main stakeholders concerned by this subject, and in particular:
- Marketers and fillers of glass containers (bottles and jars), and their federations, some of which also wash their own bottles on a large scale,
- Glass manufacturers, producing these containers, and their federations, as well as distributors,
- Independent washers and washing and collection organisations,
- Manufacturers of automatic inspection machines,
- Manufacturers of corks and caps,
- The eco-organisations ADEME and CITEO.
he group chose Markus Grumann (Photo) as its chairman. He is the Managing Director of miho Inspektionssysteme, which makes automatic inspection systems of containers originally focussed on bottling lines, with inspections at the start of the line, during packaging and of the finished product. In addition to his functions at Miho, Markus is also closely involved in two German organisations dedicated to reuse: Mehrwegverband Deutschland, which addresses all aspects of reuse and the reuse of packaging materials, and Pro Mehrweg, which concentrates on the reuse of bottles for beverages.
He brought to the working group his vision of a mature system, which is aware of some remaining drawbacks, but which intends to continue growing by modifying this system and making technical, and in particular digital, improvements. The group started by trying to answer one simple question:
“What characteristics must a container have to be reusable?”
