The idea
CauliBox is building a circular food economy through a network of reusable lunch boxes to realise a world that fits our motto: Takeaway without the throw away.
Our members can order their food from our partnering food-to-go outlets in a reusable CauliBox, and drop it off at our convenient dropoff points when they are finished. We will wash, sterilise, and deliver clean boxes to our partners and let the cycle begins!
We are currently working with street markets and vendors in Central London to help them achieve their green goals.
There are 3 main features:
1) Convenient, safe & environmental: With convenient drop-off points, our boxes are collected daily to be professionally cleaned and sanitised before being returned to vendors.
2) No extra cost: Our scheme costs nothing except for a £5 one-time membership fee for customers to participate.
3) Community Reuse Heroes: We partner with businesses in the neighbourhoods and reward customers who reuse most with locally-sourced goodies.
What we'll deliver
- Help independent food vendors in Westminster street markets fulfil their sustainability goals.
- A reusable lunchbox scheme that is a win-win-win for customers, vendors, and the Earth.
- Deliver an annual saving of one million single-use boxes in Westminster street markets by 2021.
- 20 drop-off points in convenient London locations
- Extend to five new markets in 2019. These are:
- Church Street (NW8)
- Strutton Ground Market (SW1)
- Maida Hill (W9)
- Berwick Street (W1)
- Rupert Street (W1)
Why it's a great idea
In the UK, >11B pieces of food-to-go packaging get thrown away each year. <1/3 of all recyclable takeaway containers are actually recycled; recycle should be the last resort solution while reuse should be prioritised for a sustainable circular system.
Unlike current reusable box schemes & Bring-Your-Own-Box schemes in the market that require work or charge a premium to users, CauliBox is positioned to be an industry-wide solution that encourages and rewards customers while building brand loyalty and footfall for vendors.
After a successful trial at Tachbrook Market, ⅔ of respondents said they reuse & recycle more while on the scheme & all expressed interest to continue beyond the trial, showing great demand. We are running a pilot with the City of Westminster with 15 vendors & 180 participants, before extending to 6 street markets & 20 dropoff points. We also commission local artists to decorate & design our dropoff points so that they will be representative of the local community.
Steps to get it done
- Expand to 5 other street markets in Westminster. Sign up 100 food businesses & 6,000 customers by end-2019.
- Create 20 dropoff points in convenient and prominent locations in London.
- Save 15 million single-use takeaway containers every year in 3 years.
For every £5.00 you donate, we will enter your name once to our raffle for exciting prizes including bottles of bubbly, Tate Museums tickets, artisan surplus baked goods deliveries, and more!
A little more about the CauliBox lunchboxes:
- CauliBoxes are made with a sustainable blend of bamboo fibre and polypropylene;
- The boxes are food-safe and durable; each box can be used more than 500 times before being recycled;
- According to recent research, the boxes reaches an ecological "break-even" point after 120 uses;
- All the boxes are leak-proof, microwave and dishwasher safe.
- We wash and sanitise used CauliBoxes in bulk at a commercial kitchen in an industrial dishwasher to save energy and resources and ensure cleanliness.
