The Re:Dish Reusable Container Program for Municipalities

In your city’s efforts to go greener, you need more than just recycling; you need to reduce and reuse the amount of materials needing to be recycled in the first place. For example, efficient and enforced city-wide reuse standards in food packaging alone could get you even closer to zero waste and reduce your carbon emissions exponentially as compared to single-use products.

Re:Dish’s reusable food container program can help your city reduce food packaging waste so your climate goal strategies can become attainable. From the communication and the logistics to the washing and restocking, Re:Dish can help your municipality plan and implement an end-to-end, turnkey, reusable food container program that’s easy to manage and easy to use.

Re:Dish addresses single use any place food is served at scale in your municipality, including:

• Schools and universities
• Cultural centers
• Office and government buildings
• Restaurants
• Arenas and event venues

Benefits of Introducing a Reusable Food Container Program:

Visibly demonstrate your city’s commitment to sustainability
Support residents’ efforts to reduce waste and practice sustainability
Significantly reduce waste, litter and lower your city’s carbon footprint
Reinforce sustainable behavior on a daily basis
Engage and integrate various constituent groups
Make measurable progress toward your broader climate goals

Here’s How the Re:Dish Reusable Food Container Program Works in Your Municipality:

1. The Re:Dish team will work with your city and municipality planners to design a custom program and pricing structure that best meets the needs of your residents, businesses, and public institutions.

2. Re:Dish replaces your single-use wares with durable, reusable containers that are cleaned and sterilized to the highest standards. Diners enjoy their food from your city’s institutions just like normal.

3. After eating, diners simply empty the containers and place them in strategically located Re:Dish Drop-Off Bins distributed around your city, including parks, sidewalks, facilities, and buildings—anywhere people would normally dispose of their food packaging waste.

4. Re:Dish collects the used containers for washing and sterilization at our industrial, state-of-the-art warewashing facility. We also restock the inventory of containers to make sure your food service locations always have inventory of clean containers.

Re:Dish Containers

Re:Dish containers are made of BPA-free polypropylene, designated as one of the safest plastics by the EPA, named one of the “most benign plastics” by the Clean Production Actions’ Plastics Scorecard, and approved by the FDA. At end-of-life, containers are ground up and used to create lids for new containers, ensuring that the Re:Dish product never ends up in a landfill. Re:Dish containers are:

Microwave- and freezer-safe
BPA-free
NSF-certified
Secure, sturdy, and stackable
Available in a variety of sizes and styles
Made in the USA

Real Sustainability, Measurable Results

At Re:Dish, we know that zero waste efforts are only meaningful if they are measurable. With DishTrack, our integrated dashboard, you can manage inventory and measure your municipalities’ progress with ongoing metrics that identify carbon emissions and water reduction. Reports can be aggregated at the institution and city level to show impact across the market and shared with municipal and community leaders, corporate and business partners, and the community at large.

For example, if 1,000 students use just 1 Re:Dish container per day, that school will realize environmental returns like:

AFTER 1 MONTH

Lbs of disposables saved from landfills

1,659

22,000 containers

Cars taken off the road for a day

191

2,413 kg of CO2e not emitted

80

Bathtubs of water saved

3,368 gallons of water not used

AFTER 1 YEAR

13,572

Lbs of disposables saved from landfills

180,000 containers

Cars taken off the road for a day

1,566

19,741 kg of CO2e not emitted

656

Bathtubs of water saved

27,553 gallons of water not used

*Source: A comparison of Re:Dish vs Molded Fiber (compostable) containers, based on data from the Single-Use Material Decelerator (SUM’D) UP Scorecard and an independent LCA by RRS completed in 2021.

Get in Touch

Re:Dish Program Support

When you partner with Re:Dish to implement a reusable container program, we don’t just give you solutions—we give you the support you need to be successful, such as:

Training support, including easy-to-follow multilingual instructions for different service teams to implement operations quickly and efficiently

Educational support, including program introduction presentations, on-site launch support with Re:Dish Brand Ambassadors, and ongoing education tabling events as needed

Communications support, such as bespoke creative assets, messaging, and templates to help develop marketing and communication materials

Human support, with a Re:Dish Client Success team available to help make the program a success every step of the way

An Investment with Real Returns

Re:Dish is a different kind of investment in your municipality, one that delivers measurable returns that improve your economy, your environment, and your efficiency. Our program is customized to fit your city’s unique needs, to enhance and empower your community, and to function seamlessly in your city’s ecosystem.

With Re:Dish, your municipality will benefit from:

An affordable full-service waste reduction solution, including logistics and washing, custom-built to your city’s needs
Turn-key implementation, complete with collection points, containers, communications support and public education
Convenient delivery of clean containers and collection of used ones
State-of-the-art washing, sanitizing, drying, and repackaging services designed for scale
Real-time usage and environmental impact metrics to track progress and demonstrate accountability

And, Re:Dish provides all of the services, resources, and support necessary to ensure your program is a success!