Portland reusable packaging startup Bold Reuse is expanding its partnership with New Seasons Market with a pilot program aimed at helping consumers and food producers reuse glass packaging.
Using an $87,000 grant from Metro, Bold Reuse developed a model for collecting, sanitizing and redistributing glass jars and bottles that can be reused by food manufacturers. It builds on the startup’s business model to work with enterprise customers on integrating reusable packaging into their businesses.
This New Seasons pilot started this month and will last until early 2024. The startup is working with New Seasons vendors such as Ground Up Nut Butter, Hot Mama Salsa, Sauvie Shrubs, Mickelberry Gardens and Sibeiho to start.
Customers buy the products as usual. When they are done, they can return the glass bottles and jars to a Bold Reuse drop box at all New Seasons locations. Bold Reuse will collect the bottles and jars and bring them back to their facility for cleaning and sanitizing. The bottles and jars will then be distributed back to the participating vendors who can use them again. Participating products will be labeled "Return me for Reuse." The startup has a similar program at the Moda Center with plastic concessions packaging labeled for return and reuse.
“Our objective is to create a sustainable system that food manufacturers and retailers can access effortlessly as we expand our services nationwide,” said Bold Reuse CEO Jocelyn Quarrell in a written statement.
In addition to New Seasons and Metro, the program is also supported by Waste-Free Advocates and local industry consultant Hannah Kullberg, who runs the PNW Packaged Food & Beverage Group an online group of hundreds of food manufacturers.
“The cost of glass packaging has hit an all-time high. This is forcing manufactures to move to less sustainable options like pouches and plastics,” said Kullberg in a written statement. “We need to develop a new system of reuse to allow makers to continue using the highest-quality packaging for their products.”
Last summer local grocers and groups supporting food and beverage makers noted that the high cost of packaging was forcing some producers to close and others to raise prices or otherwise alter their businesses.
Bold Reuse — which used to go under the brand Go Box — has been working with New Seasons for years with reusable packaging for the deli counter. In the last four years as Bold Reuse that program has seen 76,000 reuse cycles of packaging across all 19 New Seasons locations, the companies said.
“One of our most important sustainable packaging strategies is developing systems that allow our customers to have a lighter environmental footprint when they show with us,” said Athena Petty, senior manager of sustainability at New Seasons, in a written statement. “Through this unique partnership — and with the support of Metro — this reuse project will help us build the infrastructure to do just that.”
