Vytal co-founder discusses leveraging digital tech and AI for reusable packaging sector
19 Dec 2022 --- German scaleup company Vytal is leveraging digital technology and AI to overcome difficulties in the reusable packaging sector. The group, which rents out containers to F&B suppliers on a pay-per-use basis, recently raised over €2 million (US$2.13 million) in a crowd investing campaign after landing US$10 million in a Series A financing round earlier this year.
Starting from January 1, 2023, gastronomists in Germany are obligated to offer reusables as an alternative to disposable packaging for to-go and delivery food. PackagingInsights speaks with Vytal co-founder Tim Breker about the business and why he believes its reusable service is the answer to coming regulatory changes in the EU.
“Together with two of my former colleagues from the Boston Consulting Group, I started Vytal with the clear objective to replace the mountains of unnecessary single-use containers from takeout and delivery food that were piling up in our office,” Breker says.
“Vytal’s USP is the traceability of individual containers that Vytal users borrow for free from their favorite gastronomic outlet. The free borrowing period is limited to 14 days, and more than 99% of containers are returned during this period. This makes Vytal’s reuse solution more efficient than the German beer bottle deposit system.”
Users can return Vytal containers through an app or via their next food order.Leveraging data
One of the central aspects of Vytal’s model is leveraging data from its customers. Part of this is the use of AI, which Breker says will become more relevant for Vytal as it continues to operate. “The prediction of how the container inventories of our gastronomic partners develop and how to optimally (re-)distribute containers will help Vytal to maximize the environmental impact of reuse,” he says.
Tech integrations into existing software systems facilitate the use of Vytal for our B2B partners and our B2C community. Features like referral programs, gamification and impact measurement further motivate the continuous use of Vytal and help with transitioning to regular use of reusable containers as the default.
Vytal has so fast replaced more than 5 million single-use containers. The company’s operations “prove that gastronomists profit from better environmental sustainability with reusable packaging solutions and from lower packaging cost and higher revenues as guests come more to buy something when returning their containers,” continues Breker.
Vytal has partnerships with Just Eat Takeaway, UberEats, Delivery Hero and Wolt/DoorDash. To return containers, consumers can either drop them off by one of the partner gastronomies in the Vytal app or return them with their next order from Gorilla or Lieferando. Vytal already has a community of more than 350,000 registered users and over 4,500 partner restaurants, canteens, cafés and retailers.
Going global, policy implications 
A Vytal reusabe container.From an economic perspective, Breker believes Vytal can be considered an infrastructural investment. “Vytal combines the most sophisticated and best-rated technology platform for B2C reuse with the largest partner network in the food space to further protect its leading market position and become the dominant B2C reuse solution globally,” he says.
“The main challenge for me as a startup founder is finding the right balance between speed and quality when building the Vytal business. From a broader perspective, it is always a challenge to implement behavioral changes such as switching from disposables to make reusable packaging the new standard,” he continues.
“It is very important to understand that deposit return schemes are not the most efficient solution for reuse. They can ensure material collection, but whenever the return rate and return speed are important to maximize the ecological impact, it is crucial to track containers individually and to use psychological incentives and nudging for quick returns of reusable containers,” asserts Breker.
From an environmental perspective, Breker believes the price of single-use containers considers externalities to reflect their true cost. “For me, it is clear that policymakers should kickstart and accelerate the transition toward reuse by banning further single-use items and, ideally, helping gastronomists with monetary subsidies to switch to reuse-only offerings.”
“We cannot allow ourselves a throw-away culture anymore where disposable to-go packaging is produced to be used for 15-90 minutes before simply being incinerated or even worse disposed to pollute our oceans,” he concludes.
By Louis Gore-Langton
