Innovation

Again Again’s app and software platform provides the opportunity for packaging, F&B, and hospitality companies to adopt a circular model of operation by managing packaging used by customers for takeaways. The approach uses “managed fleets” of packaging that are loaned out by consumers via an app at the point of sale. The packaging is then tracked upon return to the vendor, or charged to the customer if not returned within the loan timeframe. This reduces pollution caused by single use packaging which is often un-recyclable and non-reusable. It also creates opportunities for businesses to provide bespoke and product enhancing takeaway packaging to their customers at low risk and individual cost. Again Again was founded in 2018 by Nada Piatek and Melissa Firth in New Zealand.

Goal 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

By addressing environmental and economic challenges in F&B packaging with a social-enterprise business approach, Again Again is innovating and providing the technological infrastructure for packaging to move towards a more circular economy model.

Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.

By displacing the need for single use items, Again Again is reducing pollution, the use of raw materials, and the habit of single use and throwaway culture. They are modeling system and business solutions as a pathway to responsible consumption and production.

Goal 13 – Climate Action.

Again Again has chosen to engage in carbon foot printing and offsets 120% of their emissions via the Ekos Climate Positive program.

Images credit: ©Again Again Limited.

Inspiration

Again Again’s initial inspiration grew from Nada’s experience with the waste auditing process where single use coffee cups dominated the waste stream – an item designed to be disposed with no other waste pathway than landfill. She recognized the need for a systems approach to remove single use cups and replace them with a reusable product. Having an entrepreneurial background, Nada recognized the social enterprise business opportunity to provide those solutions and Again Again was born.

Initially starting in the space of providing the reusable stainless steel cups, co-founders Melissa Firth and Nada Piatek pivoted the business to maintain business feasibility and address the reliance on individual behavior change. In Nada’s words “…as we've gone along we've understood more about what the problem is, the scale of the problem and how we can leverage impact”.

Again Again’s innovative platform reflects this – their software solutions’ focus is on working with businesses and F&B sectors to create and manage their own fleets of containers to reduce the waste from consumption. The motivations to create the business also aligned well with Nada’s views - “I'm a big believer in social enterprise with a business framework”.

Overall impact

In New Zealand alone there are an estimated 295 million single use beverage cups used every year (packagingforum.org.nz/compostable-coffee-cup-project/) and current alternatives are low uptake or poorly managed at the end of life (againagain.co/the-problem), this is where this business can provide solutions.

As of April 2023, Again Again has 183 vendor locations available across New Zealand with a mix of business container fleets and the original stainless-steel Again Again coffee cups at cafes. Their app tracks their total container impact with 14200 containers borrowed to date, the equivalent impact of 206kg of waste being diverted from landfill. Over 4000 users have already signed up to the app. And as new container options and collaborations come online the number of opportunities to interact with the Again Again networks increase. Hence these impacts are likely to rapidly scale with adoption in the future.

Recent work with Havana Coffee Works resulted in a coffee brand specific café fleet being released and available through the Again Again app. The Again Again fleet of coffee cups remain a useful tool for cafes and locations that are going SUC (single use cup) free, where the stainless-steel cups displace the need to offer ones destined directly to landfill without the pressure being on the customer to bring a cup from home.

They currently have a 98% return to vendor rate for fleet packaging, so each package has an average lifetime 50 use cycles before being able to be recycled. This means each Again Again fleet container effectively reduces the need for 49 other containers over its lifetime in the system. As the containers remain within the control of the fleet management their end-of-life process is also captured and managed by recycling.

Business benefit

“You have to be really brutally honest with yourself about what's working and what's not working. Because if it's not working and you're pretending it's working, then it will never get better than that” – Nada Piatek

Because Again Again has remained nimble in their approach to solving the problem of single use packaging they have been able to identify this scalable approach that meets the needs of the takeaway customers, the F&B industry, and the hospitality sector in a way that promotes collaboration. As they are working to improve environmental impacts they have access to the support from the Sustainable Business Network in New Zealand, including being listed on the SBN Circular Economy Directory.

They have also identified the needs and opportunities in a variety of F&B industries and work towards solving these problems using their fleet offers and platform, e.g., the Havana Coffee Works fleet are double walled to insulate hot and cold drinks. This makes them appealing to industry players seeking partners for success in adopting circularity for the associated waste of takeaways.

New Zealand has a thriving tech and startup industry. Again Again is part of the Christchurch based Electrify Accelerator program. This program provides support and mentoring to foster this start-up business ecosystem. They have also been recognized by Coralus (formerly Sheeo) as a venture working on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Social and environmental benefit

“The benefits of innovation to our company and the country are actually really intertwined because the more impact we can create and the more we can understand about how our system applies to business, the more we're able to iterate and perfect, and therefore reduce waste.” – Nada Piatek April 2023

As Again Again manages packaging with limited investment and risk on behalf of the business or consumer they are changing the view of packaging as something to be thrown away to something to be valued. This "throw away" culture is something that needs to be addressed to move to a more circular model with reduced raw resource use and better management of end of life processes to work towards the UN Development Goals.

From producers of packaging, product vendors, individual consumers, and the waste management processes they are able to provide a platform that enables reduced environmental impact with an enhanced consumer experience. Again Again reduces waste and pollution while addressing the challenges of inconvenience, and low adoption of alternatives such as not offering takeaways or a bring from home model. Having been proven successful in New Zealand they are moving to be available internationally to increase their impact.

Interview

Nada Piatek, Co-founder, MD