More than a year after partnering with its first few local restaurants, Friendlier, the Guelph-based reusable container company, has expanded to more than 10 restaurants and other businesses in Stratford.
Even as pandemic restrictions have lifted and Stratford’s restaurants have begun relying less on the takeout side of their businesses, a trend toward offering reusable takeout containers to customers that began more than a year ago is continuing to gain in popularity.
Fueled by a local desire to reduce consumer dependency on single-use plastics, that trend started after local environmental advocate Sammie Orr introduced Kayli Dale and Jacquie Hutchings — the co-founders of the Guelph-based reusable-container business, Friendlier — to several local restaurants.
“We first expanded to Stratford because there was such a desire for us to come there from the actual citizens of Stratford,” Hutchings said. “We connected with Sammie Orr … and she kind of rallied a lot of different people who wanted reusable options at Stratford restaurants. … So we connected with all the local restaurants, we told them about the system, how it works, and we had a great response right off the bat.
“Some of the restaurants that were actually trailblazing the movement was Mercer Beer Hall as well as The Pulp and Pazzo (Pizzeria), and so many other great restaurants in Stratford that were so excited and were ready to jump on right away.”
Having now expanded to more than 10 local restaurants and businesses including Little Green Grocer, El Cactus and the Stratford Golf and Country Club, as well as to restaurants in cities across the province from London all the way to Ottawa, Friendlier provides reusable, plastic containers to the businesses it partners with.
To use a container, customers pay a small deposit when they purchase their food. They can then scan a QR code on the Friendlier container once they’re finished with it and return it to a collection point at any participating business. The used containers are then picked up and cleaned in a high-temperature dishwasher that kills 99.9 per cent of bacteria and viruses before they can be put back into circulation.
“Now we have a dedicated day when we just go to Stratford because there’s always so many pickups for us to go get and more deliveries for us to make, so the Stratford community has been absolutely amazing when it comes to reusing,” Hutchings said, adding that Stratford businesses have so far reused more than 24,000 Friendlier products, preventing roughly 3,068 pounds of waste from going into landfills and an estimated 8,890 pounds of carbon dioxide that would have been created during the production of that same number of single-use plastic containers from being emitted into the air.
” … Re-use is something that’s new and up-in-coming in the packaging space, and it’s really the best, most environmental solution, so you really get to stand out from the crowd and offer something that’s very unique to your customers, ” Hutchings added.
And the team at Friendlier isn’t stopping at reusable-food containers. Last summer, Hutchings said Friendlier worked with Keystone Hospitality’s Bru Garden to supply, collect and clean reusable beer cups — something she hopes to expand to other local bars and restaurants this year.
Friendlier has also been piloting a new reusable, 12-ounce coffee cup at a few of its partner cafés across the province, including at Brch & Wyn in Stratford.
“Just within a matter of a couple weeks ago, we launched a new coffee-cup option,” Hutchings said. “It’s a very soft launch. We’re just testing it out to gather some feedback. … So Brch & Wyn has been one of the very few locations where we decided to launch those.
” … I think it’s something like 52 billion coffee cups (around the world) get thrown in the landfill each year, which is just absolutely absurd. So we’re trying to make it super easy to use reusable cups. I know many places give you the option to use your own (coffee cup), but if you’re anything like me, I always forget to bring my coffee cup. … This just allows people to show up to the coffee shop, get the cup, take it away, and then when you go back to drop it off, you grab a new one at the same time.”
Looking back on the company’s first successful year in Stratford, Hutchings said she is hopeful more local restaurants and businesses will consider following the trend toward offering their customers a reusable option.
For more information on Friendlier’s products and services, visit friendlier.ca.