2023-09-15 11:50:30
-When did you start thinking about how you could contribute to making the world more livable?
-I had the opportunity to live in China for a few years, coinciding with high levels of atmospheric pollution. Moved by the ecological transition, I returned to Barcelona and, after a few years, decided to interrupt my professional career as a lawyer to create Pots.
-The company implements packaging reuse systems, although they were common a few decades ago. What happened to make them disappear?
-In the 1950s, single-use plastic arrived, which was cheap and easy to use and throw away. With this new consumption model, returnable packaging gradually lost traction in the markets until its practical extinction in our country.
– What does your project consist of?
-Pots is a company whose purpose is to promote the reuse of packaging as a model of sustainable consumption. We currently work in the Horeca channel (at the moment we do not address the final consumer). In this way, we collect the bottle boxes used in restaurants, for example, we sanitize them and return them to the packaging to give them a new life. We are committed to a sustainable consumption model based on circularity.
-At the moment you have mainly focused on the wine sector. Because?
-Our vision is to cover and manage different types of packaging and materials. In fact, we are convinced that reuse will be applied in the not too distant future to a large part of the products we consume. But as a ‘start-up’ we had to focus and focus our efforts. Our country’s wine sector is directly affected by the effects of climate change (droughts, floods, plagues, etc.), which makes it particularly aware that environmental sustainability is a priority. More and more organic and natural wine producers are looking to improve the sustainability of their processes, so being able to reuse their packaging offers them the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint.
-How do you manage to be competitive in terms of price?
-Wine bottles are quality containers with a high acquisition cost. Because of this, from Pots we are able to sell the reused glass at a price comparable to that of the new container.
-Where is your headquarters?
-The current Pots sanitation plant is located at the Portolà Foundation, a Special Employment Center located in Sant Feliu de Llobregat that employs people with different abilities. The staff of this foundation is part of the tasks of handling and sanitizing the containers recovered by Pots. In this way, jobs are created and support is given to the labor integration and employment of people at risk of social exclusion due to disability and/or mental disorders.
-Could your model be replicated outside of Catalonia?
-Yes, when it is mature in this autonomous community, it is easily replicable in others. We have the example of France, a country much more advanced in terms of reuse and where there are more than a dozen projects like ours that serve the different regions of the country.
-How important is traceability in your activity?
– Offering the traceability of our customers’ packaging throughout the entire supply chain is essential for Pots. For this reason, we trace the packaging both in the recovery process and in the hygienization and delivery process, guaranteeing food safety along the entire chain.
-Finally, what does the success of reuse depend on?
-It will only be possible with the collaboration of all the agents involved, that is to say, producers, distributors, brands, as well as the administration, which must establish the criteria and facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable and beneficial to all.
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