Thanks for Re:Dishing and for participating in the Re:Dish Reusables Program!

With your help, we can make a big impact on the environment. Here are some commonly asked questions.

(Want to know more about Re:Dish? Visit our website!)

Employee FAQs

How do I know my Re:Dish reusables are clean?

Re:Dish containers, cups and plates are no different than those used every day in restaurants. Cleanliness is of the utmost importance to Re:Dish, which is why we built our own industrial warewashing facilities in order to ensure the highest quality standards.

Our washing meets or exceeds all Department of Health standards and our facility is HSS-Certified
All reusables are washed at high temperatures, so the heat acts as the best sanitizing solution
All reusables are washed using eco-friendly chemicals, which means they have been deemed safe for human health and the environment
Machinery integrates washing and drying so unhygienic air drying is not necessary. Items are immediately packed and sealed for redistribution
Products that are damaged or do not meet Re:Dish’s rigorous standards are immediately pulled out of circulation and pelletized to be upcycled into other products

Plus, Re:Dish’s warewashing facilities have an optimized environmental footprints for maximum efficiencies, using environmentally-friendly but powerful chemicals and processes that reduce water and energy usage. To learn more about our process, watch our video.

How important is it really to return Re:Dish reusables to the appropriate bin after use?

Critically important. Circular, reusable models only work when products get reused, which can’t happen if they aren’t properly returned. For the Re:Dish program to be environmentally favorable, each one of our reusables needs to be used dozens of times. In fact, each of our products are certified to be used hundreds of times.

It is essential that you return your Re:Dish to a Re:Dish bin. This ensures that it will be collected and be able to be used again and again. Leaving your Re:Dish on your desk, in a communal space, or placing it in the wrong bin defeats the environmental impact of the program.

So please encourage your colleagues to return Re:Dish containers, cups and plates to the right bin. Only in this way can we deliver a truly sustainable program. Thank you for your participation and support.

But if I take a Re:Dish home and keep it for personal use, isn’t that also reuse?

Technically yes, it is reuse. However, if our reusables are not returned properly, then Re:Dish considers it missing or lost and needs to acquire more inventory which means more environmental resources are being utilized for the production of those reusables.

With transportation and washing, is Re:Dishing really better for the environment than single-use?

Yes! We hired an external consultancy to do a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) that analyzed the environmental impact at each stage of our product - from manufacturing, washing, transportation all the way to the eventual disposal of a reusable when it is no longer fit for use. Re:Dish was found to be environmentally preferable to both plastic and compostable single-use wares over time across 20 different impact categories, including greenhouse gas emissions and climate impact, water use, and energy consumption.

How is that possible? It’s because the relentless manufacturing of new wares requires significantly more energy and water than washing and reusing. Plus, with the Re:Dish program, waste is diverted from landfills, the ocean, and other places the majority of single-use products end up.

To better understand why ‘Reuse Wins’ - check out the report conducted by UPSTREAM.

So compostables AREN’T environmentally-friendly?

Actually, they’re not. Compostables require a huge amount of natural resources to produce, and, 90+ percent of them will end up in landfill at their end of life anyway according to the EPA.

Here’s why:

Misrepresentation of waste streams. Unless there is a separate “compost” receptacle available where you are dining, compostable clamshells will get discarded with the trash and go straight to landfill.
Compostables only break down in a commercial compost facility as opposed to a standard backyard compost pile. Most compostable packaging must go to a full-scale commercial facility to properly break down. Sadly, the total confirmed number of full-scale food waste composting facilities in all of the U.S. that can actually manage these materials is only 185.
Not all compostable materials will break down, because not all compostable products are created equal. Without universal regulations, manufacturers produce these materials in a variety of ways with numerous additives.
Contamination. Compostable materials often look just like single use plastic! This greatly confuses consumers and ultimately leads to a high level of contamination—a huge problem for compost facilities.
The finished product is much lower quality. If a compostable package doesn’t fully break down properly there will be fragments of that material left behind and mixed in the compost. Buyers of that compost do not want to purchase a contaminated product, so this negatively impacts the compost industries’ business and bottom line. Additionally, compost that contains food waste AND compostable materials can’t be sold to organic farmers.

The reality is, compostable is still a single-use product. A recent publication from Greenpeace warned consumers to be skeptical of solutions that simply produce more single-use items and puts unnecessary pressure on environmental resources. They conclude that “to solve the plastic pollution crisis, companies need to rethink how products are delivered to consumers and invest significantly in reusable and refillable delivery systems.” Re:Dish is a reusable delivery system.

*For a short video illustrating the issue with compostables, please check out “Why Composting Sites Are Banning Compostable Plastics”

Why are Re:Dish reusables made of plastic? Isn’t plastic bad?

Re:Dish containers are made of polypropylene, a type of plastic which is durable, can be heated/cooled, and is both safe and environmentally-responsible. Consider this:

Polypropylene is considered one of the safest plastics by the EPA and named one of the “most benign” plastics in the Clean Production Action’s Plastics Scorecard, which evaluates the hazardous effects of various plastics
Polypropylene does not contain the endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPAs and phthalates that other plastics have
Polypropylene has not been found to be carcinogenic by several safety organizations including the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Polypropylene has a higher heat tolerance than other plastic types and, therefore, does not seem to leach the chemicals that other products do
Making a polypropylene container generates approximately one sixth the greenhouse gas emissions as making an equivalent stainless steel product
Re:Dish reusables are lightweight, requiring less fuel for transportation

Re:Dish is constantly evaluating all available materials and will always consider an alternative material if it provides a better solution. Re:Dish reusables are:

What happens to a Re:Dish reusable product at end-of-life or when it is no longer fit for use?

Re:Dish reusables are certified for up to 1000 washes. When they are no longer fit for use, we send them back to the manufacturer so they can be ground up and recycled into new products - so they never end up in landfills or as litter!

Reuse only works when reusables are returned so they can be reused over and over again. Please encourage your colleagues to return their Re:Dish reusables to a designated Re:Dish bin. Only in this way can we deliver a truly sustainable program!

Thank you for your participation and support.

For more information, visit www.redish.com.