“Ma Consigne”, the new solution to ban disposable packaging in Monaco
Imagine a world without single-use plastic. Pure chimera?
If the figures suggest that yes – two million disposable containers were still used in 2020 in Monaco – the regulations continue to evolve to ban, year after year, this material which generates so much C02 when it is incinerated in the middle of household waste.
To continue to support restaurateurs in this legislative development, the Prince’s government has just launched the “Ma Consigne” application which will allow consumers, who are very demanding, to switch to returnable packaging rather than single-use packaging. We tell you everything.
What is the concept ?
Rather than offering disposable containers to their customers, players (partners) in the take-out sale favor the use of returnable reusable glass containers.
The device, which revolves around a mobile application, allows customers, once the meal is finished, to deposit the used container in a terminal so that it can be washed and put back into the circuit. He has to do it in a given time. Otherwise, it will be debited with a certain amount: this is the famous deposit.
How many partner restaurants?
Since June 7, the launch date of the scheme, twenty-five points of sale have joined the scheme, mainly restaurateurs.
“The system is also compatible for sale in supermarkets at the counter – caterer, butcher, cheese…– with the assistance of a salesperson”explains Annabelle Jaeger-Seydoux, director of the Mission for Energy Transition.
How it works?
First step: download the free “Ma Consigne” application, available on iOS and Android.
As a customer, you will need to create an account and fill in your bank card. Indeed, a deposit of 7 euros applies for each container. Before paying for your order with the restaurant partner, you will need to present a QR Code that it will flash.
After having consumed in your glass container, you will have fourteen days to return it free of charge, and without washing it, in one of the 20 terminals distributed in Monaco. If this deadline is not respected, the 7 euros deposit will then be debited.
On the restaurant side, you just have to order the number of glass containers needed for your activity. When throwing the food in, scan the container’s QR Code and then the one presented by the customer. “Ma Consigne” takes care of the rest.
Where are the terminals?
Twenty terminals, geolocated on the application, mesh the Monegasque territory: 6 in the heart of the Fontvieille shopping center, 5 at the entrances to the railway station, 3 in the Condamine district (Max Brousse gallery and Biocoop), 5 in Monte- Carlo (place des Moulins; at the exit of the Scala post office; at snack bar 28 and at the market on avenue Saint-Charles), and 1 at the Visitation sur le Rocher car park.
These machines, developed by the start-up GreenGo, can accommodate up to one hundred containers of four different sizes, from 250 ml to 1,220 ml.
A circuit court
Special feature of the system: it includes several local players, coordinated by Lemniscate: Amapei for the packaging of containers to be delivered to restaurants, Monaco Logistique for the morning distribution and the collection, at the end of the day, of used containers at all terminals, Stars’N’Bars for washing containers.
If these services are billed to partner restaurants, they do not lose out. “Financial assistance is offered to them so that the containers cost them the same as a plastic container”says Annabelle Jaeger-Seydoux.
They joined
La Condamine
Stars’N’Bars; Courting; frozen salad; Costa (Market Halls + avenue Crovetto Frères); Eola; Amore Mio; Shaped foods; My !
Fontvieille
frozen salad; Carrefour (department caterer); ditto; The Barbagiuan; EN K; Duberney.
Monte Carlo
Mada One; Marché U (snack 28), Costa (Monte-Carlo market and Boulevard Princesse Charlotte); Frozen salad.
Exotic Garden
Coast.
Monaco-Ville
Coast; The Sandwich Kiosk.
The Larvotto
Costa (lower Larvotto promenade and boulevard d’Italie).
Why were restaurateurs seduced?
A stakeholder in the project with the provision of its washing station, Didier Rubiolo, director of Stars’N’Bars, explains why he started this transition to reusable containers.
“I support this concept because it breaks my heart to see the amount of plastics used with such a short lifespan, barely a few tens of minutes. We must dare this change for a better planet, let’s get started Yes, it’s a new logistics for us, restaurateurs, but in six months we will all be very happy to have taken the plunge”he believes.
“We have to be in the game”
It’s all a matter of habit, therefore, including among consumers.
“Every day, for the moment, we have about fifteen glass containers delivered. It’s not yet anchored in people’s minds, so we’re starting slowlyexplains Gilles Delarouere, manager of Woo in rue Princesse Caroline. Once a week, an animation allows customers to communicate about Ma Consigne. We have to be in on it because it’s a great idea. Every day, we throw away a hundred containers of sandwiches and salads.”
Larger quantities end up in the trash near the three outlets of the Ici Salad Bar brand, also a partner of “Ma Consigne”.
“At the height of the season, this represents around 500 kraft packaging for the takeaway sale. And I only count the saladsfigure Grégory Rougaignon, Managing Director of Monaco Gourmet Collection. We must each have our share of responsibility for reducing our carbon footprint. We cannot change overnight, so we operate gradually. We preferred Ici Salad, rather than A Roca, because it is more practical to test this process. It is only after assembling the salads in front of the customer that the choice of container is offered, at the end of the chain. It is therefore risk-free for us. For A Roca, everything is prepared in a production laboratory. If we put the salads in the glass containers and the customers don’t smoke them, it’s waste.”