Reusable tableware and the new rules: AGEC, VerpackG and the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive

Reusable tableware has shifted from a sustainability preference to a legal requirement across France and Germany, with EU-wide rules following. This guide sets out what each regulation requires, what it rules out, and where Fourier closes the specification gap for quick-service and catering operators.

Why reusable tableware moved from optional to obligatory

For most of the last decade, the choice between single-use and reusable tableware was an economic and brand decision. In France and Germany it is now a legal one. Two national mandates came into force on the same day, 1 January 2023, and both target on-site foodservice directly. The European Union has since locked the same trajectory into bloc-wide law through the Single-Use Plastics Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.

The procurement implication is direct. Operators running large quick-service, canteen, and catering estates in the EU can no longer specify single-use as the on-site default and treat reusable as a premium add-on. The reusable line is now the compliant line. The remaining decision is which reusable material to specify, and that decision is constrained by a separate piece of EU food contact law that has closed the obvious cheap option.

France: what the AGEC law requires for dine-in service

France's Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law, the loi anti-gaspillage pour une économie circulaire or AGEC, introduced the most explicit dine-in reusable mandate in Europe. Since 1 January 2023, any foodservice establishment able to seat 20 or more people must serve meals and drinks consumed on site in reusable cups, plates, containers, and cutlery.

The scope is deliberately broad. The obligation is aimed in particular at fast food and quick-service restaurants, but it also covers company canteens, school canteens, and museum and cultural-venue cafeterias. The decree implementing the law does not prescribe a material. It defines the outcome, reusable service for on-site consumption, and leaves the operator to choose the specification that delivers it under operational conditions.

That silence on material is the procurement point. Compliance is not satisfied by any item labelled reusable. It is satisfied by a reusable item that survives the wash-cycle volume, the handling, and the throughput of high-volume service without becoming a replacement-cost problem or a food contact compliance problem. French enforcement began with inspection campaigns and the prospect of sanctions for chains continuing to serve on-site meals in disposables without a remediation plan.

Germany: the VerpackG reusable offer obligation

Germany took a different mechanism to a similar end. The Mehrwegangebotspflicht, the reusable offer obligation, was added to the German Packaging Act, the Verpackungsgesetz or VerpackG, and took effect on 1 January 2023. Final distributors who sell single-use beverage cups and single-use plastic food containers filled on the premises must also offer the same goods in a reusable alternative.

Two conditions give the obligation teeth. The reusable option cannot be priced higher than the single-use equivalent, and the reusable choice must be made visibly available to the customer. Smaller outlets, under 80 square metres of sales area and with five or fewer staff, are exempt from holding a reusable system and may instead fill containers the customer brings. The obligation does not extend to packaging filled and delivered by a third party, such as pre-packed salad or sushi boxes supplied to a retailer.

Where France mandates the reusable item for dine-in, Germany mandates the reusable offer for takeaway. For a multi-site operator running both markets, the practical answer is the same: a durable reusable line specified once and deployed across the estate, rather than two parallel systems maintained at additional cost.

The EU Single-Use Plastics Directive and the PPWR

Above the national mandates sits the EU framework. Directive (EU) 2019/904, the Single-Use Plastics Directive, applied from 3 July 2021. It does not ban reusable tableware. It targets single-use plastic items, banning the placing on the market of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, and expanded polystyrene food and beverage containers, and imposing consumption-reduction obligations on single-use plastic cups and certain food containers. Reusable tableware is the compliant alternative the Directive steers operators toward, not the thing it restricts.

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, extends that trajectory and gives it harder edges. The PPWR entered into force on 11 February 2025 and applies generally from 12 August 2026. Under Article 25 and Annex V, certain single-use plastic packaging formats are prohibited from 1 January 2030, including single-use packaging for food and beverages consumed on site in restaurants, hotels, and catering establishments, and single-portion condiment, sugar, and creamer packaging. The PPWR also sets the first EU-wide reuse targets, including a 10% reuse minimum for beverage packaging from 2030.

AGEC FRANCE 2023 · VERPACKG GERMANY 2023 · SUP DIRECTIVE 2019/904 · PPWR 2025/40 · ON-SITE BAN FROM 2030

The combined effect across these instruments is a regulatory floor rising under single-use and a regulatory ceiling lifting over reusable. National mandates are live now. The bloc-wide on-site restrictions arrive in 2030. Procurement specifying tableware in 2026 is specifying into that timeline, not against today's baseline.

Why the new reusable specification cannot default to polycarbonate

The instinctive answer to a reusable mandate is an unbreakable plastic, and for years that meant polycarbonate. That route has now closed in the EU. Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 prohibits the use of Bisphenol A, its salts, and other hazardous bisphenols in food contact materials, with the ban in force from 20 January 2025. The regulation explicitly covers polycarbonate, which is manufactured from BPA. Transition periods allow some existing stock to remain on the market for a defined window, with general repeat-use articles permitted until 20 July 2026.

For procurement the conclusion is structural. A reusable line chosen specifically to satisfy AGEC, VerpackG, or the SUP Directive cannot rely on polycarbonate as a forward-compatible material, because a second EU regulation is removing it from food contact use. Specifying polycarbonate now to meet a reuse mandate solves one regulatory problem by creating another. The compliant reusable specification has to clear both the reuse rules and the food contact rules at once.

What specifies into a reusable tableware contract

Fourier is a bio-composite tableware system developed by Creative Hospitality Design and Manufacturing, a UK manufacturer with over fifteen years in professional foodservice. It is engineered for the operational and regulatory reality that quick-service, canteen, and catering procurement faces now: a reusable mandate live in France and Germany, an EU framework tightening through 2030, a food contact regime that has closed polycarbonate, and a documentation file that has to satisfy both at once.

A reusable line built for high-volume service. Fourier is rated for 2,000+ commercial wash cycles and is lighter than porcelain of equivalent dimension. The durability rating is the anchor for the reuse economics, because a reusable item only satisfies a reuse mandate if it survives enough cycles to displace the single-use line it replaces. The performance specification covers the full wash and thermal envelope.

Reheating and regeneration without a second material. Fourier is microwave safe and heat-safe to 180°C / 350°F across steam and combi-oven cycles. The same items specify across cold service, hot service, and ward or canteen regeneration, so an operator meeting a reuse mandate does not have to maintain separate hot and cold lines. The full thermal envelope is in the performance file.

One compliance file across the reuse and food contact rules. Fourier is EU 2020/1245 compliant across all three migration cycles, with SGS-verified composition, and it is BPA-free, so it sits the right side of Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 where polycarbonate does not. The same material is FDA compliant for US operation. The full compliance documentation ships audit-ready with every order.

Sustainability documentation, not a sustainability claim. The material is built from 70%+ reclaimed marine bio-minerals, derived from oyster shell waste streams, plus GRS-certified recycled polymers, with SGS-verified composition. The recycled content carries third-party GRS certification rather than self-declaration. For operators reporting against EPR schemes and Scope 3 frameworks while meeting the reuse mandates, this is the documentation that attaches to the file. The material specification sets out the full composition profile.

Pilot rollout from single-site cohorts upward. Whole-estate switches without piloting are not procurement practice. Fourier supports phased rollout from a single-site evaluation, with a defined evaluation period and replacement schedule, specified into existing catering contracts. Request the QSR pack for evaluation.

The honest concession. Fourier is not the right specification for every setting. Porcelain retains the advantage above 180°C / 350°F and in dry-oven service, and for formal front-of-house dining it remains correct. For high-volume quick-service, canteen, and contract catering operations meeting a reuse mandate, Fourier is the consolidated reusable specification.

Material comparison: bio-composite, polycarbonate, single-use

The comparison below is framed for high-volume on-site service under the EU reuse mandates. Different settings will weight the criteria differently.

What an audit-ready reusable tableware specification looks like

The documentation pack procurement should require from any reusable tableware supplier into an EU estate:

A statement of how the item satisfies the applicable reuse mandate, mapped to the relevant instrument: AGEC dine-in reuse for France, the VerpackG reusable offer obligation for Germany, the SUP Directive and PPWR for bloc-wide exposure.

A Declaration of Compliance referencing EU 2020/1245, with the material category, the food simulants used, the contact conditions assessed, and the result against each specific migration limit across all three sequential migration cycles. A supplier offering a single-cycle test is not offering a current EU-compliant document.

Confirmation of BPA status against Regulation (EU) 2024/3190. A reusable specification chosen to meet a reuse mandate has to be the right side of the bisphenol ban.

Third-party composition verification, ideally from SGS, Eurofins, Intertek, or equivalent. Self-declared composition is not audit-grade.

GRS or equivalent certification on any recycled content claim. Self-declared recycled content is not procurement-grade.

A care and cleaning protocol that specifies maximum dishwasher temperature, detergent type, and rinse-aid compatibility, matched to commercial wash conditions, plus the cycle-life rating that supports the reuse economics.

A pilot-rollout plan with a defined cohort, defined evaluation period, and defined replacement schedule.

Fourier ships this documentation as a single procurement pack. See the resources index for the current compliance file, care protocol, and specification sheets.