Company based in Guelph steps in to make takeout containers greener

A Guelph-based company’s containers are being used across the province in an effort to cut down on takeout waste. CTV’s Krista Simpson reports.

Stores across Ontario are using a sustainable takeout container made by a company based in Guelph.

Customers visiting Farm Boy grocery stores may have noticed the blue reusable containers offered in the hot food area and at salad bars. Those containers are the work of Friendlier, and they’re now available at 49 Farm Boy locations across the province.

“Our goal is to make reuse simple for every application,” Kayli Smith, co-founder and CEO of Friendlier, said. “So, working to really build a solution that fits into people’s everyday lives that they can use to make an impact without having to make a big change in their lives.”

The containers work on a model similar to a bottle return system: customers can put their food into one of the blue packages, pay a small deposit, and then they will receive that deposit back when they scan a QR code on the back and leave the container at a drop off point.

“They’re durable, they are made locally and they’re tracked individually. We know where they’ve gone and when they’ve come back,” Smith explained.

Returned containers are taken to a local sanitation site where they are cleaned and sent back out again, ready to be used anew.

“A lot of what is labelled as recyclable and compostable we know isn’t actually making it where you hope it might be. Recycling rates in Canada are around nine per cent. We don’t have a lot of the infrastructure we need to actually compost a lot of the items that are labelled as compostable,” Smith said.

The program first launched at a Farm Boy store on Stone Road in Guelph in August of 2024. Within six months, stores in Brantford, Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge also welcomed the change. Today, the containers can be found in Farm Boy locations throughout the province and in different stores across the country and south of border.

“We work with a number of universities and colleges across Canada, corporate office buildings, event venues, [Kindergarten] through [Grade] 12 schools. One of our big announcements recently was we’re launching with the provincial school board in Nova Scotia school lunch program,” Smith said.

As their popularity grows, Friendlier is approaching a milestone of nearly five million reused containers. The company said that adds up to a reduction of almost 800,000 kg in greenhouse gas emissions compared to single use options.

“This is really just scratching the surface for us. We want to bring reuse everywhere that we see disposables and really transform the supply chain,” Smith said.