From an Idea to Millions of Reuses: Making Returnable Packaging Work for Foodservice

For Friendlier co-founders Kayli Smith and Jacquie Hanton, the idea behind the company started with seeing what was possible elsewhere. 

While studying chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo, the two spent a semester abroad in Sweden, where sustainability and circular approaches to everyday consumption were much more visible. When they returned home, the contrast stood out. Overflowing waste and recycling bins filled with restaurant and takeout packaging were a familiar sight around campus. 

It sparked a question that would eventually lead to Friendlier: could reuse become a practical alternative to single-use packaging? 

As Kayli and Jacquie began exploring that question, they recognized that providing reusable packaging alone wouldn’t solve the problem. If reuse was going to become part of everyday foodservice, there needed to be a convenient way for people to return packaging and an effective system for collecting, sanitizing and putting it back into circulation. 

That thinking became the foundation for Friendlier’s full-service approach to reuse. 

Today, Friendlier manages the system behind returnable packaging, helping foodservice operators move away from single-use without having to build the infrastructure to manage reuse themselves. 

Making returnable packaging practical 

Foodservice operations already have a lot on their plates. Teams are managing food quality, labour, safety, inventory, costs and guest experience every day. Introducing returnable packaging brings another set of considerations. 

Where do containers go after use? Who collects them? How are they washed and sanitized? How does clean inventory get back to each location? How do you make returning a container convenient enough that guests participate? 

These are operational questions as much as sustainability questions. 

Friendlier is designed for high-volume foodservice environments that rely on disposable packaging, whether guests are dining on-site or taking their food to go. This is especially effective in environments like campuses, workplaces, healthcare facilities, event venues, and other locations where guests return regularly or remain within a larger site. Rather than operating as an optional reuse program or relying on on-site dishwashing, Friendlier’s system is designed to replace single-use packaging across the operation, with collection, sanitation and recirculation managed as part of the service.  

Reuse has to work in the real world

Reusable packaging isn’t a new concept. The challenge is making it convenient and scalable enough to work in busy foodservice environments.

For kitchen teams, packaging needs to integrate into existing workflows. For operators, inventory and logistics need to be reliable. For guests, returning a container needs to be intuitive and convenient. Behind the scenes, those containers need to be collected, safely sanitized and put back into circulation. 

If one part of that experience doesn’t work, the entire system becomes more difficult to scale. 

This is why Friendlier approaches reuse as a system rather than simply a packaging product. 

Technology supports that system too. Friendlier’s platform helps facilitate returns and deposit management while providing participating organizations with visibility into the environmental impact generated through their program. 

Rather than expecting a foodservice operation to adapt around reusable packaging, the return system needs to adapt to the realities of foodservice. 

What does successful reuse look like? 

Today, Friendlier supports returnable packaging across a range of foodservice environments, including universities and colleges, corporate dining, healthcare, schools, venues, events and retail.

At the University of British Columbia, for example, Friendlier’s program expanded across 13 foodservice locations. With students, staff and visitors moving between locations every day, the program demonstrates why successful reuse depends on more than simply putting reusable containers on the counter. 

The impact of these programs continues to grow. Friendlier currently services 78 Compass units across its network, and together these locations have reused more than 2.46 million products, helping reduce single-use packaging waste while making reuse convenient for guests and operators alike.

Collection infrastructure, transportation, sanitation, inventory and communication all need to work together. 

Instead of individual locations taking on those responsibilities themselves, Friendlier manages the system behind the scenes. Used containers are returned through designated collection points, collected, professionally sanitized and prepared for their next use. 

While every foodservice environment is different, the underlying challenge is often similar. Organizations may want to reduce their reliance on single-use packaging, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the infrastructure, labour or expertise to manage reuse themselves. 

For returnable packaging to scale, making it operationally practical is just as important as making it environmentally beneficial. 

From an idea to millions of reuses 

Today, what began as an idea between two engineering students has grown into a reuse network that has circulated nearly 6 million containers. 

Together, those reuses have helped avoid more than 341,000 kilograms of plastic waste, save approximately 47 million litres of water, and avoid nearly 1 million kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions compared with equivalent single-use packaging. 

Friendlier’s growth has reinforced an important lesson: successful returnable packaging requires more than the packaging itself. 

It requires collection networks, sanitation infrastructure, reliable logistics, inventory management, technology and an experience that makes participation easy. 

Taking reuse off the operator’s plate

As foodservice organizations look for practical ways to reduce single-use packaging, the conversation is increasingly shifting from whether reuse is possible to how it can work operationally. 

For Friendlier, that means making returns easy for guests while taking as much of the operational burden as possible off foodservice teams. 

The packaging is what guests see, but the system behind it is what makes reuse possible. 

Nearly six million reuses later, Friendlier continues to work toward the same idea that sparked the company in the first place: making reuse a practical, scalable part of everyday foodservice. 

Are you Interested in learning more about a returnable packaging program? Contact your Foodbuy Account Manager to discuss a Friendlier program, or send an inquiry to [email protected]