AMAB social enterprise opts for sustainability with MEIKO

AMAB has been offering contract packaging services for a number of years – an activity that is well-suited to people with disabilities. 'But it doesn't really tick all the boxes in the Planet category of the 3P philosophy. So that's why we decided to introduce a new activity as a third key line of business alongside our co-packing and electronics assembly services. It stemmed from an idea we had in 2019 to start washing reusable cups, and it is very much based on the principles of the circular economy. We got in touch with Festicup, a company that sells and rents reusable cups. Its services are the perfect match to what AMAB offers, so together we can provide an all-round recycling solution that meets the needs of end customers who value sustainability. Legislators gave our project a real boost in 2020 when they made it obligatory for municipalities and event organisers in Flanders to use reusable cups. If an organiser opts to use disposable materials instead, they are required to recycle 95 percent of those materials. That's an almost impossible challenge, so reusable cups will increasingly become the norm,' says Olivier.

AMAB's first task was to find a suitable machine for washing the cups, says Olivier: 'We did a lot of research into what machines were available on the market and what requirements the machine would have to meet, particularly in regard to our employees' disabilities. MEIKO really stood out during that research phase. David Jacobs from MEIKO Belgium was tremendously responsive to our needs right from the start, both in terms of our mindset and our philosophy. We set MEIKO the challenge of creating a machine that had never really been developed before. They immediately recognised the potential, and they were really enthusiastic about getting involved in a social project. They did everything they could to cater to our needs, and the machine they came up with is perfectly tailored to the cups and to the employees who work with the machine.'

The machine AMAB uses is a M-iQ flight type dishwasher with a length of 14 metres. It can wash and dry 8, 000 cups an hour. The machine includes a built-in cooling unit that is designed to ensure optimum drying. By cooling down the cups, it prevents the formation of condensation and mould. AMAB also chose to have the conveyor belt equipped with "fingers", says Olivier: *The idea was to simplify things so that employees with disabilities could easily manage the work. If we had chosen racks, which each hold 35 cups, that would have required people to count the cups each time. That isn't as easy as it seems, and for some people with a disability it can be really tough. MEIKO understood that immediately and offered us an alternative that wasn't available from its competitors. The idea was that one finger would correspond to one cup, which made it into a simple and repetitive task. The same principle was applied to drying.

Plastic is not an easy material to dry, and the technology we needed was still in an embryonic stage. But by speeding up the development process, MEIKO was soon able to prove beyond any doubt that it could get the plastic completely dry before it came out of the machine. And that ticked off the last point on our checklist for working with MEIKO. We consider partnerships to be an essential part of our business. We're looking for a long-term business relationship, so reliability, openness and transparency are much more important to us than just getting the best price. This applies to all our suppliers. MEIKO not only proved to be responsive, accessible and professional but, even more importantly, they were clearly determined to understand our needs – and that's when we knew we had found the right partner!'