Reusable Ice Cream Spoons are changing the world of the ice cream parlour

Reusable Ice Cream Spoons are changing the world of the ice cream parlour

Do you know how and what the PROBLEMS are?

For the past two years, as we know, a European Directive has banned certain single-use plastic products from the market.

These include cutlery and tableware.

To overcome this limitation, many manufacturers have started to offer, among other things, Reusable Spoons and Straws.

In this way, some of them believe they can get around the legislation prohibiting the marketing of single-use products, by

labelling as reusable products that are almost identical to those that were clearly single-use before. Are we sure that this is enough to be able to sell these products without running into problems?

What does the law say?

The regulations governing reusable products clearly tell us that they are “designed and conceived to be reused, and therefore suitable for repeated use and washing”.

So a product, in order to be declared reusable, must have certain features, namely: 1. Be suitable for repeated use and washing without this leading to alterations of any kind,

2. Be part of a circuit system that allows a long life cycle whereby the product in question can be reused again and again for the purpose for which it was created.

This is the reason why, in order to allow the use of these new multi-use items, manufacturers are asking ice-cream vendors to sign a declaration in which they undertake to perform a series of tasks that are fundamentally changing the world of the ice-cream parlour, resulting in: - the creation of new professions, - the emergence of new questions, - the appearance of new needs and critical issues.

THE NEW PROFESSIONS Previously in ice-cream parlours, the key roles were that of the Master Ice-Cream Maker, the Sales Assistant and sometimes the Cashier. Today, new people with new professional skills are needed to fulfil the tasks required to define Ice-Cream Spoons as reusable.......

The Collector The whole reprocessing process starts with this person, every evening this person is in charge of collecting the ice cream spoons in the rubbish bins outside the premises, notoriously overflowing with… everything. It is therefore not uncommon to see this person late at night sorting thorough pieces of cones, dirty napkins and leftover ice cream. During the summer this person only sees family members rarely and only on days when it rains heavily.

The Filler This person performs a fundamental task, namely cleaning the ice cream spoons collected from the bins. This person lives in a perpetual state of crisis, torn by ceaseless doubt: “Do I wash the spoons in the dishwasher at 65° and not sanitise them or at 85° and risk altering or damaging the material?” When they talk about exhausting work ....

THE NEW PROFESSIONS The Reprocessing Analyst This is where things get difficult.

It is up to this person to assess the integrity of the product, checking “colour, deposits and iridescent layers, swelling or deformation, shine, opacity and cracking” (aforesaid reg.).

Usually the analysis of the 22nd daily spoon causes fits of despondency and attempts to escape.

And to think that, on average, there would still be ‘only’ a few hundred more ice-cream spoons left to examine.

The Washing Accountant Daily Washes

Usually a graduate of MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a fellow student of the protagonists of “The Big Bang Theory”, this person has to program complicated algorithms based on string theory to determine the number of washes each spoon has undergone. Exasperated, this person often relies on the simplest chaos theory.

NEW CUSTOMER REQUESTS Similarly, until now the main concerns and questions from customers were about the quality and freshness of the ice cream, the availability of flavours for those with lactose intolerance or for vegans, and the presence of allergens.Today, new and darker questions arise in the minds of customers ...

Questions to avoid Has this spoon been washed 124 or 126 times? Is it harmful to my child?

In all ice-cream parlours there is a magic time, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., when the place is full of mothers and ... children. And it is nice for every ice-cream vendor to reassure parents that “ice-cream is a healthy and fresh food, made daily with natural ingredients”.

But how to address a mother’s doubts about the number of washes a spoon has undergone and the health risks for her baby?

Better to close the ice-cream parlour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., maybe ...

Magical places and nightmarish places There is always one direction in which all ice-cream parlour customers turn their gaze with dreamy eyes: the workshop.

What secrets and knowledge give life to that “imperfect wonder” called ice-cream? Today, unfortunately, the customers’ grim and pensive gaze turns elsewhere, to the rubbish bin. What will happen in there between strangers’ saliva and allergens that, harmless to many, can be dangerous to some?

NEW CUSTOMER REQUESTS

Is it better to have an unsanitised spoon at 65 degrees, or a deformed and untested spoon at professional washing temperatures?

The sad life of the customer In an ice-cream parlour that only uses reusable spoons for customers, there are only two alternatives: using an ice-cream spoon that has not been sanitised, because it has been washed at 65° degrees, or a spoon that has not been tested and certified for industrial washing at 85° degrees. A sad life ....

NEW PRIORITIES How wonderful it was when the priorities of ice-cream parlours were to select the best raw materials or to ensure that the service at the counter was courteous and faultless.

The use of Reusable Spoons unfortunately requires new operational and organisational priorities ....

A continuous chase A place with a high level of footfall. This was every ice cream maker’s dream. Seeing families enter the premises, buy their ice-cream cups and then go and eat the ice-cream in the park or downtown. Now these pleasant walks of customers turn into unsettling scenarios for the ice-cream makers, made up of running and, above all, chasing to ... retrieve the ice-cream spoons, otherwise destined to be scattered around the city.

Life as a midfield player, rather than an ice-cream maker...

IF YOU ARE AN ICE-CREAM MAKER THINK ... ... whether it is worth taking on the responsibility of carrying out all the necessary operations to collect, reprocess and put the spoons back into use for their original purpose.

The legislation, in fact, expressly stipulates that sanctions apply not only to those who place non-compliant products on the market, but also to those who make such products available.

Considering that there are objective and easily identifiable elements that can «expose» the failure to meet the

requirements, What? Simple:

• the presence of «multi-material» rubbish bins in front of the ice-cream parlour; • customers eating ice cream while taking a stroll outside the premises; • the reordering of spoons, the clearest and most indisputable proof of the “disposable” use of the product.

What greater proof can there be than needing to reorder a box of over 2,000 spoons when all of them should be reused 125 times?

It would take a consumption of about 285,000 ice-cream cups per year to justify the purchase of additional Reusable Spoons in the same season.

IF YOU ARE A CONSUMER THINK ... ...... if it is worth taking the risk by using an ice-cream spoon that has hopefully been in use for a long time with those used by other consumers and subsequently subjected to a number of washes that, frankly, seems difficult to account for.

Not to mention that the Reusable Spoons are tested to

withstand domestic washing at 65° and not professional washing at much higher temperatures

(standards call for temperatures between 80 and 85 degrees), necessary to ensure the sanitisation of objects that have come into contact with the saliva of strangers or with allergens that are harmless to some but dangerous to others.

Would you prefer to receive an unsanitised spoon or a spoon that has not been tested to establish its resistance to high temperatures?

Do you feel that any of these options, the only ones possible when using Reusable Spoons, protect your health or that of your loved ones?

Considering also that no information on the type of spoon made available at the premises is communicated in advance and no alternative is proposed.

CONCLUSION It is clear that the sale of Reusable Spoons, whose structure

and selling price are almost identical to those of the single-use version, is based on the assumption of a series of operations that are in fact impossible to carry out at a normal ice-cream parlour.

That is why such activity appears: • dishonest on the part of the manufacturers, for having designed the above with the sole aim of placing products on the market at a significantly lower price than the available and compliant alternatives; • dangerous on the part of ice cream parlours, which take on the responsibility of carrying out activities that are difficult to implement on a daily basis; • detrimental to the environment, as it does not activate the virtuous circle of recycling, but the vicious cycle of releasing non-compliant products into the environment.

Reusable Ice Cream Spoons are changing the world of the ice cream parlour

Putting at risk: • ice cream parlours • consumer health • the future of the planet

Alcas s.p.a. via Livorno 21/23 - Firenze