Reusable takeout container company set to expand again — this time into Guelph grocery stores

While the federal government recently announced a ban on the manufacture and importation of single-use plastics over the next few years, a small Guelph, Ont.-based company has established itself as a leader in reusable plastic packaging for food service.

Friendlier.ca first launched their line of reusable takeout packages in a restaurant in November 2020, and have since expanded to 150 restaurants in Ontario.

On June 8, Friendlier announced a pilot program with four Zehrs grocery stores in Guelph which will offer reusable takeout containers at their home-meal replacement and deli counters in what the company hopes is a scaling-up of their sustainability reach.

Friendlier, headed up by Jacquie Hutchings and Kayli Dale, helps businesses move from single-use packaging to reusable packaging including coffee cup, beverage and takeout containers in several sizes.

Setting up the business was a goal Hutchings and Dale started when they were chemical engineering students at the University of Waterloo.

"We developed a passion for sustainability and wanted to put our efforts toward creating a business that could actually help the planet," Hutchings says.

Friendlier's process of shifting to reusable containers is designed to be trouble-free for both the grocery store, the restaurant and the customer. 

As a grocery-store shopper at one of the four Guelph Zehrs, you simply ask for the food to be packed in Friendlier reusable containers for a 50-cent refundable deposit.

When people are finished with the food and container, they scan the QR code with their smartphone or visit Friendlier's website and type in the code. When the container is returned to a bin in a store or restaurant, people are refunded their deposit.

Food service operators purchase Friendlier containers like they would any other container and only have to ask if the shopper wants a reusable container with the 50-cent deposit.

The containers are Ontario-made polypropylene and manufactured using 24% less energy than conventional takeout containers, Hutchings said. Friendlier can provide sustainability data to food service operators about savings in greenhouse gas emissions and water use.

The containers are lightweight, stackable, easy to store and are microwave- and freezer-safe; they can be used up to 100 times.

Friendlier says it can also provide companies with a rich source of data in tracking where the containers have been purchased and where they have been returned.

"We can see where a container purchased at Zehrs was returned to Zehrs, or if it went from The Wooly Pub to Zehrs," Hutchings says.