The Glebe BIA is pleased to partner with the Glebe Community Association on an exciting project that seeks to create a reusable takeout cup and food container ecosystem in the Glebe. The goal is to demonstrate a commercially viable and user-friendly alternative to single-use food service ware that will reduce waste and contribute to Ottawa’s growing circular economy.

Bring it Back to Bank! will run until June 2027 with support from the Community Environmental Project Grants Program funded by the City of Ottawa.  This program works with Friendlier, a supplier of reusable cups and containers for food service businesses. Here in Ottawa, Friendlier reusable packaging is in use at the Red Apron, the Green Door Restaurant, the University of Ottawa, and Farm Boy grocery stores. Most of these outlets have been using this system successfully for years!

Glebe BIA restaurants, cafes, delis and grocery stores can partake in this program to help improve their in-store sustainability efforts. Contact kate@goboldly.ca. to register for the program.

How It Works

Once customers bring back their used containers to return bins located in each participating location, Friendlier collects, washes and sanitizes them and delivers them back to the businesses for reuse. Friendlier uses an easy-to-use deposit-return system, whereby customers claim their deposit by scanning each returned item before dropping it into a return bin.

Training will be provided to staff at participating locations to make sure everyone understands how the system works and why switching to reuse is so important for the health of our planet. Front-line staff will play a critical role in communicating the project to customers and reminding them, with each and every purchase, to “Bring it back to Bank!

Why A Neighbourhood Reuse Project?

This type of reuse system is a solution to the growing concerns about climate change, microplastics and the amount of disposable packaging filling our landfills. Reuse systems for food and drink are already in use in Europe and continue to gain traction in North America.

The more locations there are for customers to conveniently return their empties for reuse, the greater the chances that they will do so. Glebe residents will be engaged through outreach at community events, local schools, Carleton University, etc, and encouraged to frequent participating retailers.  Ultimately, we hope to make reuse mainstream – so that scanning and returning a cup or container will seem as simple and second nature as remembering to bring a reusable shopping bag to the grocery store.

Glebe businesses can become a participating location for this project by reaching out to julia@intheglebe.ca or kate@goboldly.ca