Vancouver company celebrates reusable food container success

While there are multiple ways to eschew single-use food takeout containers in favour of reusable ones, a Vancouver company says it is moving toward being a major player in the sector.

Reusables.com was founded in 2021 by Jason Hawkins and Anastasia Kiku, then both in their mid-20s, as a way to address the scourge of single-use takeout containers they were seeing piling up in garbage cans, landfills — or even worse — as litter.

"We just don't have any more time to sit and not do something," said Kiku at the time about their concept.

Reusables finds a home at universities, country club

The company provides businesses with reusable containers, which are given to customers at checkout without a deposit. Customers are only charged — between $5 and $10 — if the containers aren't returned to special bins that track them.

It's a simple concept, which others are also doing, but comes with hurdles such as getting customers to change their habits to adopt the system.

Reusables.com says the company recognized its system, now at places such as University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University, is a good fit for where consumers, such as students and staff, return to the same place over and over again.

"It really makes sense as a perfect closed-loop model where everyone is in that location," said Jasper Law, the company's product lead. "It's easy for them to know that they can bring it back to that place."

Reusables also has improved its made-in-Vancouver return bins. Users scan their container to open the bin, meaning it's tamper-proof and can only be filled with Reusables containers.

Law said a successful reusable-container business has to have a high rate of return to be viable.

"What matters in these programs is return rate," he said. "So we are striving to get as close to 100 per cent as possible because every container loss needs to be replaced and that eliminates the value of the program."

West Vancouver's Hollyburn Country Club is now using the Reusables.com system for its 8,000 members.

Officials say member often received food or drink in single-use containers, but used them and discarded them on site, which created a garbage problem.

"So we thought we should look for an alternative solution," said Caitlin Lundy, the club's director of sales and communication.

The club says it's now saving between 8,000 and 10,000 units of paper cups, plastic lids and paper takeout containers per month. 

"So the initial cost of the system, it paid for itself within about two months," Lundy said.

Company receives seed funding

Reusables.com captured nearly $4 million in seed funding in April to help it expand further.

"We're thrilled to be backed by the best tech and climate investors as we scale real impact, not just optics," said Hawkins in a release from the company.

"Greenwashing won't solve the waste crisis — technology and execution will."

Single-use item waste is a big problem to tackle in a "take, make waste society," said Denise Philippe, Metro Vancouver's National Zero Waste Council's senior policy adviser.

Metro Vancouver has ambitious goals to reduce this type of waste and commended companies like Reusables.com for trying to make a difference.

"I think there's lots of creativity and innovation that's happening in this space," said Philippe.

"So kudos to both the reuse systems [and] system providers that are out there … scratching their heads … and trying to figure out how to make this work and make it work at scale and make it cost efficient."