Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and L’Oréal are among the participants in The Reuse City Canada Project, a city-scale reuse initiative run across Ottawa by Reposit and the Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition.
The project will test how reuse systems can offer practicality to consumers and viability to businesses when operating at scale. It also seeks to collect learnings and replicate the project in other cities and markets.
At participating stores in Ottawa, personal and home care products will be sold in reusable packaging. Consumers will pay a small refundable deposit, which will be refunded when the packaging is taken to a designated in-store return point.
From here, the reusable containers will be collected, professionally cleaned, and re-circulated for further use.
Reposit will oversee the system design, build and day-to-day operations. This is set to involve shared return points, reverse logistics, professional washing infrastructure, integrated data systems, and standardized return messaging in both English and French.
Altogether, the system aims to benefit all stakeholders – reducing friction for consumers, establishing a shared approach to testing reuse in retail environments, and unlocking a consistent, reliable reuse experience between stores.
In turn, the reuse approach is set to lessen reliance on single-use packaging in everyday products and complement other circular solutions like recycling, all while continuing to meet consumer needs.
Retail participants include Walmart Canada, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, and Your Independent Grocer. The project is supported by Amcor, Avery Dennison, Circulr and IBM.
It will be partially funded by the Government of Canada and Handelens Miljofond, the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund; it will also be delivered with the support of the Canada Plastics Pact.
The Reuse City Canada Project is expected to launch in Ottawa in Q3 2026. Consumer-facing communications will be released closer to the project’s launch, and participating members will join the Consumer Goods Forum in sharing non-confidential learnings with industry and policy stakeholders.
“Changing our collective relationship with plastic requires collaboration and creative new approaches – and Ottawa is an exciting breakthrough in collective action,” explained Cédric Dever, director of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action. “This project shows how retailers, manufacturers, and system enablers can align efforts to deliver reuse at city scale.
“Through these kinds of partnerships, we can create credible evidence of what works and provide a scalable blueprint for other markets worldwide.”
“Transitioning from single-use to reuse requires more than good intentions — it demands collective action and systemic change across the entire value chain,” continued Reposit founder and CEO Stuart Chidley. “The Reuse City Canada Project represents a large-scale collaboration between global manufacturers, retailers and solution providers, working together to design the infrastructure and incentives that make reuse accessible for everyone.
“This is an important step toward building a circular system that works at scale — one where packaging keeps its value, resources stay in use, and waste becomes a thing of the past.”
The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, added: “Focusing on durable, reusable packaging can drastically cut plastic waste, pollution and material use. Today’s announcement is a great example of governments, businesses, non-profit organizations and communities working together to create new economic opportunities and sustainable choices for Canadians that keep the value of our resources in the economy and out of landfills and the environment.”
A similar project took place back in 2024. Closed Loop Partners worked with brands like The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Starbucks to sell reusable cups as default takeaway packaging across restaurants in Petaluma, California – an effort reported to achieve a 51% return rate.
Since then, TOMRA and Associação da Hotelaria, Restauração e Similares de Portugal (AHRESP) have worked alongside city officials to roll out Lisbon’s city-wide reusable cup system with a local deposit-return model. It was recently upgraded to accept Mastercard payment technology and expects to avoid ‘millions’ of single-use cups every year.
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