Pyxo French Startup
Meet Pyxo, a French startup that has been thinking a lot about single-use plastic food packaging for the past three years. The company wants to offer a service that makes it as easy and as cost-efficient to use reusable food storage containers at scale.
The idea behind Pyxo comes from a fair at the Tuileries gardens in Paris. Right next to the food stands, waste bins were overflowing with soda cups, clamshell burger containers, and various single-use food packaging.
At first, the company started working with the French corporate catering service company Sodexo. They worked with them to replace plastic cups and make everything reusable. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the switch to remote work, Pyxo started looking for other potential clients.
They have started working with Foodles, Popchef, and other foodtech companies that offer connected fridges with packed lunches and snacks.
But Pyxo’s biggest market opportunity comes from a regulatory change. In July 2020, France’s parliament passed an anti-waste law with some drastic changes. Restaurants have to switch to reusable food containers by January 2023.
It means that fast food restaurant chains won’t be able to use paper-and-plastic cups, disposable clamshell boxes, etc. Pyxo is already working with an unnamed fast-food chain in France to help them switch to reusable packaging.
The startup has created a sort of marketplace of reusable food containers that connect every company in the industry. When a fast food restaurant buys a batch of containers, they all come with a QR code or NFC chip to track them everywhere.
Restaurants can outsource cleaning to specialized companies that can give you a batch of clean containers when they come and pick up the containers of the day. These contracting companies also scan containers, cups, and whatever they are cleaning.
Pyxo French Startup
