In order to offer container cleaning services, industrial washing centers are emerging and thus allow school canteens to get rid of disposable plastic. Example Avignon, which aims for zero plastic.
Ending disposable plastic: easier said than done for many school canteens. Replacing it with reusable containers, very often made of stainless steel, implies that they now have to be stored, transported, recovered and washed, which is incompatible with current infrastructures. So how? By focusing on mutualis industrial washing.
Washing centers are looking for contracts
A new center of this type has just been inaugurated at the National Interest Market (MIN) in Avignon (Vaucluse), very close to the city centre. In a room of 800 square meters, a high-speed spraying machine ensures hygiene that meets the standards for agri-food products. According to Gonzague Grue, co-founder and operational director of Uzaje, the cleaning rate of this machine can clean between 600,800 large items per hour and around ten thousand small ones, such as cutlery. See the video report. Still need long-term contracts to ensure the amortization of such an installation, the cost of which is estimated at one million euros.
In Avignon, the city was already thinking about achieving zero plastic in its school catering. A central kitchen, managed by the municipality, provides meals for 36 schools. Meals delivered until recently in large disposable plastic trays. However, plastic contains additives, some of which are endocrine disruptors which would result in a decrease in fertility, an increase in obesity, hyperactivity, and even hormonal cancers in the longer term. This is why the Egalim law, promulgated in 2018, prohibits, by 2025, in schools, the use of all plastic cooking, reheating or serving containers.
Consistent service less than 100 km
Lacking space in its central kitchen to accommodate an industrial washing center and few additional resources to devote to the transition to zero plastic after the purchase of 2,100 stainless steel bins, hot cupboards, storage ladders or even crates transport, the city of Avignon has therefore decided to outsource the cleaning of containers to the company Uzaje. Difficult nevertheless to know precisely the cost of the service. According to Uzaje’s Commercial Director, Franois Satin:Since the industrial tool is used by several customers, it is a shared investment and therefore necessarily less expensive than if everyone bought a machine in their corner.
Thus, the city of Avignon will be able to reduce its plastic waste by 20 tons per year while providing healthier food for its schoolchildren. Municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants have until 2028 to find the right plastic-free formula in their schools.
The Uzaje company intends to develop in all major population areas. For the sake of profitability due to the cost of transport and its environmental impact, the service is consistent over a perimeter of 100 km in terms of catering; for other activities, it may be more.
Article published on February 21, 2022
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