Items disappear quietly.
Cups go home with consumers, boxes stay in offices and mailers sit in drawers. Without scans you cannot tell where the loop breaks.
Q · A
What does Rotion do for a reuse startup?
Rotion gives every cup, box or mailer in your scheme its own identity and records each handover between restaurants, canteens, webshops, consumers and your wash partner. It runs deposits, shows return rates per location and produces the reuse data clients, investors and regulators ask for.
- Starter from 150 EUR/month, 14 days free
- QR, RFID or both, on the same platform
- One system from pilot to scale
01The problem
Return rates decide the business.
A reuse scheme lives on how many items come back and how often they go out again. Most startups only learn that number at the end of a pilot.
Deposits get messy.
A deposit paid at one site and refunded at another needs a clear ledger, or partners stop trusting the scheme.
Clients want proof.
Caterers, retailers and investors ask for return rates, cycles and impact per site. A spreadsheet will not convince them.
02Cost per use
Return rate decides what a bowl costs.
A reusable bowl pays off when it comes back often enough. Set your own numbers and see the return rate where reuse beats single-use.
The life of one bowl, drawn use by use.
Sample dataAt 90%10 uses
Break-even 95.5%22 uses
Your rate 97%33 uses
One use, the bowl comes backLast use, the bowl is lost
- Uses per bowl
- 33
- Cost per use
- €0.35
- Single-use
- €0.42
- Break-even rate
- 95.5%
At 97%, each use of a bowl costs €0.07 less than single-use.
Sample numbers. Rotion shows your real return rate per site from the first scan.
03Closed loop
Everyone in your scheme.
Restaurants, canteens, webshops and consumers pass your packaging on. Each handover is a scan, so return rates show per location.
- 01Restaurants
Hand out cups and boxes and take them back, with one scan each.
- 02Canteens
Issue packaging at the counter and collect it at the return rack.
- 03Webshops
Send orders in reusable mailers and see which ones come back.
- 04Consumers
Pay a deposit, return the item at a return point and get the deposit back.
- 05Return points
Collect returns. Each one counts for the location where it came in.
- 06Wash partner
Washes, checks and sends items back into circulation, logged per item.
Field results from operators running Rotion across pools, retail and industry.
28%
S.01fewer assets lost
9%
S.02smaller fleet needed
575,310
S.03assets tracked
Trusted by these organizations.
04How it works
Out, used, back, washed.
Partners and consumers scan with any phone. Each scan moves the item to its next holder, so you see where returns stall.
- 01
Issue at the counter
A restaurant or canteen hands out an item and the deposit is recorded.
- 02
With the consumer
The item travels home, to the office or by post. Custody sits with the consumer.
- 03
Return point
Returns at any participating site or drop box. The deposit is refunded.
- 04
Wash and back out
The wash partner logs each cycle and restocks the sites running low.
05Pilot to scale
Start on Starter. Keep the data when you grow.
A pilot fits on Starter. When you add sites or items, you move up a plan on the same account, with every item and scan you already have.
Campus bowl scheme
One account, 18 months
Locations in use against the plan limit
Months 1 to 18Locations in usePlan limitFirst move up
Same account. 1,500 bowls and 41,000 scans carried over.Month 4, Starter to Launch, nothing to migrate
Starter€150 a month
Months 1 to 3
Pilot at Canteen A
Locations1 / 1
Items1,500 / 2,500
Launch€499 a month
Months 4 to 12
Six sites on campus, from Canteen A to Canteen C and three cafés
Locations6 / 10
Items8,000 / 10,000
Scale€999 a month
Months 13 to 18
28 sites across the city, from Café 11 to Office 4
Locations28 / 50
Items40,000 / 50,000
Sample scheme. A location is any place where items are scanned or received.
06Platform
Built to grow with the scheme.
Deposit ledger
Deposits held, refunded and open, per site and per consumer.
Read more
Return rates per site
Rotation and return time for every location in the scheme.
Read more
Losses per site
See where items go out and stop coming back, per site and per week.
Read more
Pilot reporting
Cycles, return rates and reuse figures per site for clients and investors.
Read more07First 14 days
Your first two weeks, free.
Starter comes with 14 days free and no credit card. Most of a pilot fits in that time.
Get your pilot running
Day 7 of 14, 6 of 7 steps done- Day 1
Sign up at startup.rotion.eu and create your item type.
- Day 2
Import or print QR codes and label the first 500 bowls.
- Day 3
Invite Canteen A by phone and link.
- Day 4
First issue scan at the counter.
- Day 5
First return scan at the drop box.
- Day 7
First week: 1,140 issued, 1,086 back.
- Day 14
Trial ends. Export the pilot report for your client or investor.
Start free for 14 daysSelf-serve at startup.rotion.eu, no credit card
Where reuse startups start.
Q.01How much does Rotion cost for a startup?
Rotion Starter starts at 150 EUR a month and comes with 14 days free. You set it up yourself through Rotion Starter and move to a larger plan when the fleet grows.
Q.02Do we need to choose QR or RFID up front?
No. Rotion reads QR, barcode and RFID, and you can combine them. Adding or switching a technology does not change the platform or your data.
Q.03Can we pilot with Rotion and scale on the same setup?
Yes. Pilots and full rollouts run on the same system. Rotion runs Repasys, a consumer reuse pilot with 106,312 packages across 6 retailers, on the same platform. Read the Repasys case study.
Q.04What does PPWR mean for takeaway reuse?
From 12 February 2027 takeaway sellers in food service must accept containers that customers bring, and from 12 February 2028 they must offer reusable packaging within a system for reuse. That creates demand for schemes that can prove their return rates. See the PPWR Navigator and our guide to the takeaway rules.
Q.05Who owns the data and the customer relationship?
You do. Rotion owns no fleets, consumers or contracts, and you decide what each partner sees.
Q.06Which plan does a pilot need?
A pilot at one site fits on Starter: up to 2,500 items at one location, from 150 EUR a month. A location is any place where items are scanned or received, so a scheme with several canteens or restaurants starts on Launch. You move up on the same account and keep every item and scan.
Q.07Does Starter include Autopilot?
No. Autopilot, Rotion’s AI agent, comes with the Custom plan. At pilot volumes the reports on Starter show where items stop coming back: return rate, cycles and losses per site.
