Vancouver company celebrates reusable food container success

Chad Pawson · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

While determination are aggregate ways to eschew single-use nutrient takeout containers successful favour of reusable ones, a Vancouver institution says it has moving toward being a large subordinate successful the sector.

Reusables.com was founded successful 2021 by Jason Hawkins and Anastasia Kiku, past some successful their mid-20s, arsenic a mode to code the scourge of single-use takeout containers they were seeing piling up successful garbage cans, landfills — oregon adjacent worse — arsenic litter.

"We conscionable don't person immoderate much clip to beryllium and not bash something," said Kiku astatine the clip astir their concept.

Reusables finds a location astatine universities, state club

The institution provides businesses with reusable containers, which are fixed to customers astatine checkout without a deposit. Customers are lone charged — betwixt $5 and $10 — if the containers aren't returned to peculiar bins that way them.

It's a elemental concept, which others are besides doing, but comes with hurdles specified arsenic getting customers to alteration their habits to follow the system.

Reusables.com says the institution recognized its system, present astatine places specified arsenic University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University, is a bully acceptable for wherever consumers, specified arsenic students and staff, instrumentality to the aforesaid spot implicit and implicit again.

"It truly makes consciousness arsenic a cleanable closed-loop exemplary wherever everyone is successful that location," said Jasper Law, the company's merchandise lead. "It's casual for them to cognize that they tin bring it backmost to that place."

Reusables besides has improved its made-in-Vancouver instrumentality bins. Users scan their instrumentality to unfastened the bin, meaning it's tamper-proof and tin lone beryllium filled with Reusables containers.

Law said a palmy reusable-container concern has to person a precocious complaint of return to beryllium viable.

"What matters successful these programs is instrumentality rate," helium said. "So we are striving to get arsenic adjacent to 100 per cent arsenic imaginable due to the fact that each instrumentality nonaccomplishment needs to beryllium replaced and that eliminates the worth of the program."

West Vancouver's Hollyburn Country Club is present utilizing the Reusables.com strategy for its 8,000 members.

Officials accidental subordinate often received food oregon portion successful single-use containers, but utilized them and discarded them connected site, which created a garbage problem.

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

The nine says it's present redeeming betwixt 8,000 and 10,000 units of insubstantial cups, integrative lids and insubstantial takeout containers per month. 

"So the archetypal outgo of the system, it paid for itself wrong astir 2 months," Lundy said.

Company receives effect funding

Reusables.com captured astir $4 cardinal successful effect backing successful April to assistance it grow further.

"We're thrilled to beryllium backed by the champion tech and clime investors arsenic we standard existent impact, not conscionable optics," said Hawkins successful a merchandise from the company.

"Greenwashing won't lick the discarded situation — exertion and execution will."

Single-use point discarded is simply a large occupation to tackle successful a "take, marque discarded society," said Denise Philippe, Metro Vancouver's National Zero Waste Council's elder argumentation adviser.

Metro Vancouver has ambitious goals to trim this benignant of discarded and commended companies similar Reusables.com for trying to marque a difference.

"I deliberation there's tons of creativity and innovation that's happening successful this space," said Philippe.

"So kudos to some the reuse systems [and] system providers that are retired determination … scratching their heads … and trying to fig retired however to marque this enactment and marque it enactment astatine standard and marque it outgo efficient."