Rethinking plastic packaging at supermarket scale.

Kiwis discard 1.76 billion plastics annually.* To move the needle, circular economy specialists Circularity and foodservice packaging experts Bonson co-developed RePlay™ – a reusable container system designed to eradicate single-use takeaway packaging in quick-service environments.

As a fellow B Corp, Circularity came to Hula to design a brand that disrupts the effortless convenience of single-use plastic at the deli counter, without making the return process feel like a chore. We needed to make sure that we didn't guilt consumers, but rather invited them into a feel-good habit.

RePlay™ was entirely new to the New Zealand market. To win over both sceptical retailers (B2B) and busy shoppers (B2C), the branding had to be hard to miss, easy to love and instantly understood.

We distilled the strategic logic into a name packed with irresistible joy: RePlay Returnables. For a brand that is simply distinctive, but with enough stretch to evolve across a whole future range of returnables based on food type and occasions.

To visualise the "Enjoy, Return, RePlay" lifecycle, we built a visual ecosystem that’s designed specifically to cut through the visual noise of high-traffic supermarket environments. Now the branding transforms a sustainable chore into a playful, repeating loop. It doesn't just ask shoppers to buy food; it recruits them into a movement.

Thoughtful prompts to return works seamlessly with the physical form of the actual container which was created by Bonson in collaboration with the brilliant team of industrial designers at Blender.

Launched as a pilot at the deli counters of New World Birkenhead and New World Metro Willis Street, RePlay™ has already proven that sustainable infrastructure can change the game for single-use plastic in foodservice.

Immediate adoption: within the first few weeks, shoppers had used 425 containers, diverting nearly 8kg of single-use packaging from landfill.

Industry recognition: The RePlay™ circular initiative picked up three Gold Awards and one Silver at the 2026 PIDA Awards in Melbourne, recognised across Reuse, Marketing Design, and Labelling & Decoration. As we write this in Sep 2026, it has also been shortlisted as a finalist in the  Sustainable Business Network awards for Disruptive Innovation and Outstanding Collaboration. Massive congratulations to the Bonson and all those involved!

*Source: WasteMINZ