By: Eden Chipperfield, News Writer
On October 2, SFU welcomed a new program headquartered at MacKenzie Café. Reusables is a Vancouver-based company that started during the pandemic to tackle the single-use plastic epidemic. Reusables aims to eliminate takeout waste with their stainless steel containers.
The Peak connected with the co-founder of Reusables, Jason Hawkins, to discuss sustainability and bringing Reusables to the SFU Burnaby Campus. “Students can get food in Reusables’s stainless steel containers at MacKenzie Café. It’s free to borrow containers for up to three days,” said Hawkins. “You can borrow with a physical debit/credit card or your phone numbers.” After finishing with their takeout containers, students return the Reusables by dropping them off at one of the five Smart Return Bins around the Academic Quadrangle. Hawkins noted, “Students can keep containers for longer but will be charged a refundable deposit of $20 on each container after three days.” The $20 deposit is “100% refundable for up to 30 days.” The containers will be washed at the SFU Dining Commons through the “existing commercial dishwashing infrastructure partnership.”
Hawkins explained this partnership further helps environmental targets by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as there is no need to transport packing from different locations. Often, the transportation of goods and services can lead to an increase in GHG emissions. The partnership with the Dining Commons will help to eliminate that, as containers will not need to travel far to be cleaned. Single use plastics are a major pollutant in Canada. In 2022, 3 million tons of single use plastic products were thrown away. Reusable is a step toward reducing this number by offsetting GHG emissions from transportation and single-use pollutants.
Reusables is currently backed by separate powerhouses such as Bunzl, Disney, Doordash, Uber Eats, and IGA. All of these companies use single-use containers — Reusables wanted to change their approach. The cooperation between Resuables and Disney began in 2022 on the television set of Death and Other Details. The crew on the stage “understood the problems with compostable packaging; that being it is still single-use and most of the time ends up in landfills due to a lack of commerical composting infrastrcture in BC.” Reusables soon became part of the production team as their containers were used daily and helped Disney work toward completing their Environmental Production Policies. Crafty and catering from the set were also excited to participate in the program. According to Resuables, over the four-month filming schedule, they were able to “divert close to five tons of packaging waste” from entering the landfills, equivalent to almost 20 tons of carbon emissions. “That is a huge impact,” said Hawkins.
Now, Reusables is making its big debut at SFU, starting with its launch at Mackenzie Café. In 2022, the company ran a test pilot at the SFU Dining Commons. During the pilot program they had a successful container return rate of 100%, compared to their average rate of 98.7%. “Maintaining a return rate above 90% is crucial for the overall environmental impact,” stated Hawkins.
Mackenzie Café is one of many stops for the Reusables train, as their big picture is to expand to other areas of SFU. Hawkins also discussed the hope they could partner with SFU environmental groups such as Embark Sustainability and create a Reusables ambassador program to help spread the message of climate technology and eliminate single-use plastic. “We are focused on Mackenzie Café and ensuring the solution is flawless for students and staff. Once that is complete, then we will focus on expanding to other areas of SFU!” expressed Hawkins. He noted they are “really excited to make SFU the first campus in Canada to have a campus-wide reuse system!”
Reusables is looking for feedback regarding the container program, as well as ambassadors for Reusables at SFU. If interested, find the details at reusables.com/pages/sfu-landing-page.
