At interpack 2026, André Lang-Herfurth from Sykell presented the SIMPLE REUSABLE ecosystem – a comprehensive solution for reusable plastic food packaging. The system extends the proven deposit logic of beverages to other packaging categories.

Infrastructure as the key to success

„Why is it that when I'm in the city centre and buy a bottle of water, I don't throw it in the bin, but carry it around with me until I get to the next deposit machine? But why don't I actually do that with the salad bowl?“ Lang-Herfurth asks rhetorically. The answer lies in the lack of infrastructure for other types of packaging.

Sykell is working to close this gap. The system allows for the return of takeaway packaging, salad bowls, and yoghurt pots at existing deposit machines. „All these types of packaging can be returned at the deposit machine using existing logic that people are already familiar with,“ explains the circular economy expert. This transfers an already established consumer behaviour to new product categories – without the need to learn new habits.

Trade and software as scaling drivers

Co-operation with trade partners, particularly the REWE Group, is crucial for success. Lang-Herfurth emphasises: „By relying on appealing to common sense, which says, come, let's embrace circularity [...] it's important to differentiate what is actually infrastructural here, i.e. how we make things easy for people, and what then constitutes the competitive element.“

Besides its own reusable system, Sykell offers with „Circular ERP“ a software solution that is already used by ten different reusable systems. The company is already recording several million cycles in the market – proof that the idea is not stuck in pilot status but is scaling operationally.

PPWR as political tailwind

The EU Packaging Regulation PPWR supports development, even though Lang-Herfurth deems it „watered down“. Nevertheless, it creates political tailwind for packaging waste reduction and reusable systems for the first time – a framework that has been missing until now.

Sykell's SIMPLE REUSABLE System demonstrates how reusables can work beyond beverages. With the right infrastructure and software, circular packaging becomes suitable for everyday use – an important component for the circular economy and a concrete example of how deposit logic can be applied to new product categories.