Finland-based Kamupak, a reusable packaging start-up, is going out of business, the company announced today on LinkedIn.
“We regret to inform you that Kamupak's journey will come to an end,” the company wrote on a LinkedIn post. “All the way leading up to this day we have had a strong hope that we could solve our financial situation and be able to continue our mission to create circularity in take away packaging and reduce single use waste. It has now unfortunately been clear to us that we are forced to take this difficult decision.”
Founded in 2018 to fight single-use plastic packing waste, Kamupak created a digital deposit return scheme to keep reusable food containers in circulation. The first so-called KamuDish was launched in 2020, a 1.2 litre reusable flat plastic container.
By 2021,10,000 single-use containers had been replaced by KamuDishes, in use in 50 restaurants, cafes, and supermarkets selling takeaway food around Finland. Customers were able to choose a reusable KamuDish, rather than a single-use container, when ordering food at an establishment. Depending on the product, a deposit of between €1 and €3 was charged. Customers could return the container to participating establishments after use, in exchange for a refund or new, clean packaging.
In the following couple of years, the start-up doubled in size, expanded to other Nordic countries, added to its product portfolio, and merged with Swedish competitor &Repeat – which has thus also gone out of business.
The company expected 2024 to be ‘the year when reuse is finally kicking off’, according to its website, as the PPWR legislation introduced reuse mandates.
It has now emerged, however, that the company has been facing financial woes and has been forced to close doors.
A recent survey has found that 78% of consumers don’t choose reusable packaging, despite saying they should play a part in reducing the use of single-use plastics. The largest gap between good intentions and action was found amongst people belonging to the boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964), with only 4% actually using deposit return schemes. As for barriers to adoption, 44% of respondents cited difficulty in consistently remembering to bring reusable packaging; 41% expressed concerns about cleanliness; 39% worried about the hassle of returning, cleaning, or storing reusable packaging; and 38% see an upfront cost as a potential barrier.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has released a study saying reuse packaging could be price competitive with single-use options When designed collaboratively and operated at high scale.