Introducing Lendable: No fees, no fuss, no single-use waste

On Thursday 18 July 2025, we proudly presented Lendable to Bristol stakeholders: a free, frictionless reuse scheme for everyone.

A year ago, Ecosurety set up a team to research, review and reimagine refill and reuse: how it could work in the long-term, and for the everyday consumer.

We realised that, amongst the diverse refill and reuse solutions available across the UK, three elements prohibit scale, both in uptake and packaging being reused. These are:

• Behaviour change – Reuse options often rely on consumers actively choosing them over single-use, paying a deposit, and returning packaging - an unsustainable ask. We set out to prove reuse can work without requiring these behavioural shifts.
• Volume of packaging - Reuse won’t scale if only a few businesses or formats adopt it. We need to create high packaging volumes in a small area to drive scale and consumer uptake… at least to start with.
• Lack of infrastructure - Reuse needs efficient systems for collection, cleaning, and redistribution. Isolated trials can struggle with this, so we must work within existing infrastructure to make it viable.

What’s needed is some creative thinking, and multiple organisations working towards the same goal.

Introducing: Lendable

We have focused on designing a system with a different approach to these areas. Drawing on our expertise of developing voluntary schemes, such as the Flexible Plastic Fund and Podback, we met with key stakeholders, exploring and testing how our ideas might be received by prospective scheme partners, brands and retailers, and consumers.

No deposit and no technology

We have designed a scheme to make choosing reusable packaging effortless for the consumer. No app, no additional deposit fees, no detours to a specific collection point. Our members will serve food in reusable packaging, and, once they’re finished, their customers can simply pop this packaging into a dedicated Lendable bin on the street.

The customer’s routine stays the same, allowing reusable packaging to fit naturally into daily life and become the default choice.

Removing 1 million pieces of on-the-go packaging from Bristol per month

Bristol, a vibrant city full of food-to-go spots, inspired our scheme. Every day, countless single-use containers are discarded within 30 minutes of purchase. That’s a lot of waste!

To tackle this, we partnered with local businesses and national chains that package food on-site, replacing disposables with reusables. Our ambition is to convert 1 million pieces of single-use packaging to reusables within the first year of the scheme.

Partnering with existing, local collection and wash facilities

Once we have reusable packaging at volume, we can access economies of scale to collect and wash it, improving commercial and carbon efficiencies. Our scheme partners with Bristol Waste Company, which already has teams out in the street collecting general waste bins, and Re-Uz, reusable packaging specialists with a local wash facility.

A recognisable brand

The final key to making reuse work, and scaling it, is creating a unifying brand for the packaging, collection points, and collection system, giving it a real presence in the city, and making it the default choice. We have trademarked ‘Lendable’ and worked with local branding agency Enviral to create a clear message: Purple cup, purple bin.

We chose to launch the concept initially to a primarily Bristol-based audience, and key Ecosurety members invested in reuse, at the Everyman Cinema in Clifton.

This was the perfect place to premiere our scheme, with popcorn and drinks in our very own Lendable packaging. We were also fortunate to be joined by Jame Clark, Re-Uz, Ken Lawson, Bristol County Council, and Sarah Burns from Bristol Waste for a panel to discuss why Bristol is the right place to launch this scheme, and how we will make it work.

Sarah Burns, Sustainability and Engagement Manager at Bristol Waste, commented:

At the end of the event, the call to action was simple: let us know if you think this will work, and if you would like to be part of the working groups for the final development and implementation. Overwhelmingly, the answer was a resounding yes!

With iconic Bristol independent businesses engaged, and being heavily supported by key organisations such as Bristol Business Improvement District, we are confident Bristol can be the first reuse city, and act as a blueprint for national scale up.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Lendable, and getting involved, or if you couldn’t make the live Lendable launch – please join us at our upcoming webinar on Friday 1 August, to discover how we’re building the blueprint for reuse cities and how you can join our pioneering scheme to help shape the future of sustainable packaging. Sign up here.

Should you have any questions, please do reach out to: rmarriott@ecosurety.com.