THE CHIP GLASS MADE IN BARCELONA THAT WANTS TO BE TRULY REUSABLE
The Catalan company Encore! has designed an automatic container return system for festivals and concerts.
Reusable cups started appearing at festivals and major parties around here some time ago. The model has been spreading, with systems such as charging a deposit to the consumer to return the cup at the end of the event or with tokens that you have to try not to lose throughout an unpredictable night of partying to get your euro back. Even so, these formulas are often accused of falling intogreenwashing, since it is very common that the organizer himself does not have adequate logistics to make it easy and the customer gives up in the face of long queues.
In Barcelona, ten years ago, entrepreneurs - Belgian François Jozic and Frenchman Loïc Le Joliff, founders of the Brunch Electronik electronic music parties - began to think about how they could solve this problem. At that time, reusable cups were not yet widely used in Spain for mass events and they first applied the idea to their own festival. Later they created Re-Cup, a subsidiary dedicated exclusively to this service, which they offer to other clients such as Barça, the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, Palau Sant Jordi, Sónar and Cruïlla.
The company is now called Encore! -the English word for an encore at a concert, and at the same time the one chanted in French to ask for one more song at the end of a recital- and has decided to incorporate more technology so that its glasses end up being returned for real. "After covid we restructured the company, changed our name and increased the capacity of our washing center. We went from being a small cup company to a much larger one," explains Teddy Sant, Encore!'s CEO.
His idea was to copy what fashion chains like Zara or Uniqlo already do thanks to RFID technology. "You take a product and give it an identity. This way, each glass is unique," explains the executive. This is achieved with a chip in the form of a label that is attached to the base of the container to digitize it. Readers are then incorporated at each stage of the purchase and return process: at the bars there is a smart mat that can link up to 10 glasses at a time to a single payment method when the containers are placed on top. "It changes your chip, because then that glass is yours alone and you take more care of it," Sant says of this solution, which they have dubbed Smart Flow.
The process for returning the glass when the concert or festival is over is also simplified. "There's no need to wait in line because there are automated return machines. You just leave it and go. It's one second per person," notes the Encore! general manager. He also recalls that for security reasons, in places like soccer stadiums, it is difficult to have a return circuit with staff, because the venue has to be emptied against the clock and there are too many crowds. Its system recognizes up to 25 cups simultaneously and refunds the money instantly. The containers used during the day are then taken to the Encore! washing center, where some two million cups are cleaned every year.
SAVINGS AND SUSTAINABILITY
These smart containers can withstand up to 100 washes and are 15-20% more expensive than traditional containers, an extra cost that is borne by the event organizer. "Our way of presenting it to promoters is to convince them that the operation will cost them more, just as it did when recycling was incorporated, but that they will gain at the time of cleaning, in personnel costs and, above all, in image, which is increasingly important," argues Sant. In addition, he recalls that one of the keys for consumers to return the glasses is that the design is not particularly beautiful, to prevent them from becoming collector's items.
For now, the new technology from Encore! -which has a staff of 20 employees and invoices about 3 million euros annually as part of the Centris group- has already been tested in Barcelona at the Brunch Electronik festival, in an event that brings together more than 5,000 attendees at the Poble Espanyol. The company, however, is in talks with other promoters, event organizers and soccer clubs such as Barça and Atlético de Madrid to incorporate this smart reusable cup service in their facilities.
Sant believes that there is still significant room for growth in the Iberian Peninsula, but recognizes that in northern Europe there is more competition because these systems are quite widespread in countries such as Sweden and Finland. The next step will be to extend the same concept to other types of packaging such as plates, bowls and coffee cups, so that they are also truly reusable.
By: PAULA SOLANAS ALFARO
