Reusable e-ink event badges just had their week. The return box is the hard part

I am pleased. I have argued for a while that the printed name badge is the quietest pile of waste at any conference. But the launches also make one thing obvious: the screen is no longer the interesting part. The operations around it are.

The hardware argument is over

Both products share the same physics as ours: an e-paper face that only uses power when it changes, holds its image without a battery drain, and can be rewritten in seconds. A misspelt surname or a last-minute substitute becomes a re-sync, not a reprint. Nobody needs convincing on that any more.

What differs is the job each one is built around. Joan's badge sits inside a subscription workplace stack, with NFC for door access and a battery rated for months of office use. That is excellent at a reception desk that sees guests every weekday. Heuvelman and Invitado have bolted theirs onto a registration scanner, which is the right instinct for a congress floor. A one-day UK networking breakfast needs neither door access nor a 200-day battery. It needs the right names on the right chests at 7.45am and every badge back in the crate by 10.

Reuse only counts if the badge comes back

Here is the bit the launch copy skips. A reusable badge is only greener than paper if it is actually reused, and that depends on attendees handing it back. Heuvelman's own launch event gave visitors a small gift in exchange for returning theirs, which tells you they know exactly where the risk sits. GreenBookings, reviewing the Dutch launch, noted that no paper, plastic or carbon saving has been published yet, because it depends on how many events each badge survives and how many come home.

The UK badge supplier Imagin Products made the same point in a buying guide this month: a reusable format only has the potential to be used again. That is the honest framing, and organisers should hold every e-paper vendor to it, including us.

The prize is real. A PVC card can carry up to 1.51 kg of CO2e on its own, according to a UT Austin study for Maritz reported by Skift in February. Isla's analysis of 789 events this year found 84% of event materials were newly produced rather than reused or hired. Badges are a small slice of that, but they are a slice where reuse is genuinely easy, provided someone owns the return. See eco-friendly exhibition badges in the UK for how hire compares.

Who carries the return risk?

This is where buying and hiring part ways. If you buy a crate of badges, every one that walks out of the venue in a delegate's coat pocket is your loss, your replacement order and your carbon. If you hire, getting the fleet back is the supplier's problem, and the supplier is motivated to make the collection point impossible to miss.

That is why we built Ink Badge Hire around UK hire first, with buy-to-own for hosts who run the same event every month. We programme the four-colour faces (brick red, black, paper white and yellow) from your guest list before dispatch, so there is no pairing ritual at the door, and the return label is in the box. For how Joan's workplace badge differs from event-day hire, see our Joan ePaper badge for events comparison and visitor badges page.

Five questions to ask any reusable badge supplier

1. Who programmes the faces: your ops lead from a spreadsheet, a scanner at the door, or a workplace app?
2. What return rate do you assume, and who pays for the badges that do not come back?
3. How many events does a badge need to survive before it beats a recycled card on carbon, and can you show the working?
4. What happens when 30 names change the night before?
5. Are you paying for features built for an office, such as door access or months of battery life, at a one-day event?

Reusable e-ink badges are arriving properly now, and that is good news for anyone tired of binning lanyards by the sackful. The organisers who get the benefit will be the ones who treat the return box as seriously as the registration desk.

— Dan Cluderay, Ink Badge Hire by ONDRAFT LTD

Sources: Joan press release "The Smallest ePaper Screen in the Office Hangs Around Your Neck" (dated 20 Oct 2026, getjoan.com); invidis, "ePaper ID Badge: Joan Shrinks Signage to Four Inches" (20 Oct 2026); Joan blog, reusable ePaper event badge (14 Oct 2026); AV Buyers Club (29 Sep 2026); GreenBookings, "Een badge die na afloop weer terug in de doos gaat" (16 Oct 2026); Event Inspiration on Heuvelman's Inspiratiedagen; Heuvelman knowledge base, Invitado E-badge; Imagin Products, Sustainable Event Badge Solutions buying guide (7 Oct 2026); Skift Meetings on Maritz and UT Austin (9 Feb 2026); invidis, "Joan Interview: From E-Paper Pioneer to Workplace Platform" (20 Oct 2026).