Vending

Vancouver vending operation to offer customers recycled containers

Image courtesy of Upmeals.

May 20, 2021

Upmeals, a Vancouver vending machine operator, has partnered with Sharewares, a Vancouver-based company that sources and sanitizes reusable containers for businesses, to provide recycled containers, according to a press release. All material and packaging in the Upmeals Smartvending machines are either recyclable or compostable; however, this partnership is an important step away from single-use containers and toward a circular economy.

The program will launch in the Upmeals' Smartvending machines with a corporate partner that will be assigned an allotment of reusable containers for their machine or machines. Once an employee is done with the container from their meal, it will be returned to a bin and picked up by Sharewares. It will then be sanitized and returned to Upmeals who will use the containers to package the meals that will then be delivered back to that partner's machine.

"We know that many city compost and recycling programs aren't perfect and the volume of waste created by the food industry is paramount," Drew Munro, CEO and co-founder of Upmeals. "This partnership will allow us to take that next step in working toward a zero waste, circular economy, reducing the amount of volume we add to recycling and composting streams and helping Vancouver in its vision to be a zero waste community by 2040."