We will never send you any packaging that goes in the bin or the recycling.
This means no foil caps, no stick-on labels or paper bags.
When we say zero waste, we mean it.
Being strict about packaging is difficult and makes things challenging for us - the existing food system relies heavily on packaging, often just for on shelf visibility or brand identity.
Solving this challenge is what makes our offering special. It's meant we've had to come up with a totally new system for managing and delivering groceries that is unique. This has not been done before and by using our service you are helping us to learn and make it better.
If you are a consumer trying to shop in a more sustainable way it is very difficult - big supermarkets dictate packaging and you don't really have much choice in trying to avoid it.
We exist to provide you with that choice.
Here are some of the things we get asked about our reusable system:
Why reusables?
Why reusables?
This is the best way to remove packaging from the waste stream.
While we sell as many things loose as we can, many grocery products still need things to hold them, for practical and safety reasons.
Reusables through our system offer the most complete solution to be able to offer a grocery service that is comparable in range, ease and affordability to mainstream grocery options.
There are a number of challenges involved in solving reusables at scale and we have solutions to them:
Safety
Our expert Food Technician ensures our system is safe.
Transporting empties
We clean and fill containers ourselves at our CleanFill hub, so are not shipping containers around to be cleaned and filled elsewhere
We collect containers ourselves at the same time as when we deliver, meaning no extra journeys for collection
Labelling and de-labelling
A core difficulty when reusing containers, especially the mess and waste caused by removing stick on labels. We solve this with our innovative Magic Labels.
Range
Operating our own system allows us to sell a wide range of products, our goal is to offer most of the things you'd normally buy in your big regular shop.
We are considering the use of some home compostable packaging for some products, but this area is still very much in it's nascent stage.
What are the containers made of?
What are the containers made of?
A variety of things. As we are new, one of the main things we are focussed on learning is which materials work well for you as the customer, and also how they fare when put through our cleaning system repeatedly.
You might receive the same product in different containers each time and we'd love you to tell us what you thought of them. For example, if you order pasta from us it may come in a glass jar, a stainless steel container or a cotton bag.
There is a lot of work being done by other companies on materials at the moment, including on truly home compostable options. So we have a lot to choose from when we're testing them.
How do you clean them?
How do you clean them?
We use commercial cleaning equipment at our CleanFill hub to ensure containers that have been through our process are cleaner than when they were new. You can read more about that here.
How do you keep track of containers?
How do you keep track of containers?
Every container we have is given it's own container ID, which we laser etch this ID onto the containers as a scannable QR code. This let's us do a number of things, including:
Lifecycle tracking. We know how many times a container was used, who had it and what was in it. This allows us to perform a robust lifecycle analysis to show that our reuse system really is bette for the environment as recovery and reuse rates are very important to track and understand
Safety in fulfilment. Having scannable containers means our fulfilment process can be based on scanning every stage making it safer and faster
In the future we will add smarter features such as scan to reorder (QR codes are now widely scannable by smart phones)
We do our own etching with our own laser and in house tech. As far as we're aware nobody has done this before.