Refill. Return. Repeat — How Georgian brands are embracing sustainability

As the effects of global warming grow more serious each year around the world, people in Georgia are starting to rethink how we package products and what happens to them afterwards. While landfills overflow, it’s becoming increasingly clear that recycling and reusing are essential for humanity to go forward.

In response, more states, corporations, and even smaller, responsible businesses, are encouraging and turning to reuse systems, so that used containers are returned, washed, and used again instead of being thrown away.

It’s a simple idea with potentially big implications: less waste, fewer emissions, and smarter use of resources in the long run. From Munich to Barcelona — and now to Tbilisi — businesses are piloting systems that prioritise reuse models and try to turn packaging from single-use into reusable, multi-use materials.

At the moment, two well-known names in Tbilisi — Campa and Fabrika — are taking further steps into this global movement.

Building on a legacy

For Campa, a local juice and beverage company known for its distinctive glass bottles and cardboard packaging, the switch feels like a natural next step.

‘We’ve always prioritised environmental responsibility and close relationships with our customers’, says Ana Chkhetia, a project manager at Campa. The company has long been using recyclable materials.

However, the pilot — made available with the help of Georgia’s longtime friends, western donors — lets the company go even further: ‘bottles will not just be recycled but collected, washed, and reused multiple times, significantly reducing resource use and environmental impact’, Chketia says.

The idea is straightforward: cafés, restaurants, and other businesses will return empty glass bottles to Campa. There, they will be washed, sterilised, refilled and resold.  That means less need for new bottles, fewer emissions from manufacturing, and a more circular production loop — the 101 of what is known as the circular economy.

To spotlight their new initiative, Campa hosted an event in Mtatsminda Park at the end of May, inviting customers to return used bottles. For practical reasons, bottles need to be empty and visibly undamaged.

‘For business customers the project introduces a return logistics process for used bottles. They will be encouraged and supported to return empty bottles after use through incentive schemes’, Chkhetia says, adding that for individual customers, the changes may initially be more subtle.

‘Awareness campaigns will help [everyday customers] understand the importance of returning bottles or choosing reused ones’, she insists. ‘Ultimately, it’s a step toward a more responsible consumption culture. This also helps reduce waste at the source and contributes to national and global sustainability goals.’

A Western supported initiative

While these projects are brand new and just now commencing, the idea of reusing materials isn’t entirely foreign to Georgia. Older generations of Tbilisi folks might still remember returning glass bottles for a few tetri in the gloomy days of the 1990s. What’s different now is the effort to systematise this practice.

What has allowed Campa and others to turn this vision into reality is support from organisations like CENN, an environmental group based in Tbilisi. With backing from the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) on behalf of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CENN launched the Tbilisi Circular Lab last year to help Georgian businesses pilot return schemes.

‘Reusable packaging systems are one of the most practical and impactful ways companies can collaborate for sustainability’, says Nana Takvarelia, a circular economy and waste management specialist at CENN. ‘These systems reduce demand for natural resources and raw materials, whilst also significantly cutting down on waste generation — and they offer promising opportunities for cost savings and profitability’, she says.

Through the Tbilisi Circular Lab and a business acceleration programme, CENN brought together selected Georgian companies and experts from across Europe — from Spain’s Bumerang (the first reusable cup and bowl service) to Germany’s Relevo (a company offering smart solutions for reusable packaging), along with consultants who have advised major players in their shift to reuse.

The programme provided a platform that not only inspired companies to take action, but provided them with tangible support. At first, participants received tailored guidance on developing and managing reuse systems within their operations, says Takvarelia, with the programme culminating in a ‘significant investment opportunity designed to support businesses in piloting and scaling these systems’.

‘Both Campa and Fabrika are ideal businesses to launch these systems’, she says. ‘While Campa is cleverly starting off with business to business agreements and collecting packaging from their business partners, Fabrika has established a consumer-facing model, one that works in symbiosis with all its resident businesses’, she adds.

Building a culture of reuse, one cup at a time

Enter Fabrika, a multifunctional cultural center best described as a hub of urban style cafes and bars, artist studios and shops, educational institutions, a co-working space, and the biggest hostel in the entire region — all built around an energetic open space courtyard.

According to its marketing manager, Salome Kuprashvili, the company has already been collecting recyclable plastics and collaborating with Tene, an eco‑tech social enterprise that, perhaps most notably, produces USB cables. So the idea that waste can be turned into something useful is not alien to them.

‘However, single-use plastic cups remained a major issue for us’, Kuprashvili concedes. ‘On busy weekends, it was nearly impossible to ensure separation or recycling. So, joining the Circular Lab felt like a natural next step to take a deeper responsibility and move toward a more meaningful, reuse-first culture’, she says.

The pilot that Fabrika is undertaking introduces a reusable cup system across all Fabrika food and drink spots. From June, customers will be able to get their drinks in reusable cups for a small deposit of ₾3 (around $1), which they get back upon returning them.

‘It’s simple: take it, use it, return it, and it goes back into the loop’, Fabrika’s marketing manager says.

‘For us as a space, it means eliminating single-use plastic cups altogether. But beyond logistics, it’s a mindset shift’, Kuprashvili explains. ‘It’s about making it easy for people to act on values they already hold: caring for the environment, being conscious about waste through a system that doesn’t demand extra effort’.

‘The return process is straightforward and low-effort, so we’re not asking people to change their routines, just to participate in a small cycle that has a real environmental impact. It’s designed to fit smoothly into everyday habits, not disrupt them’, she says.

What comes next?

As the pilots launch this summer, the businesses taking part, just like the donors helping to implement them, are looking forward to clear benefits and potentially a continuation.

Campa, for example, will be tracking return rates, customer participation, and operational logistics and efficiency — looking for lessons that could guide a full-scale roll-out. As Ana Chkhetia of Campa says: ‘If successful, the company plans to scale up the reuse system and integrate it as a regular part of our strategy’.

When it comes to Fabrika: ‘the goal is not just to test it, but to make it a long-term practice’, per Salome Kuprashvili. But they’re also hoping that their experience becomes useful for other spaces like theirs and beyond, who want to try out similar models.

‘We’re ready to share what we’ve learned, because we believe reuse is not just a trend, it’s where we all need to be headed’, she says.

Meanwhile, CENN will also be monitoring, with hopes that the pilots ‘demonstrate clear benefits of reuse systems for the public, businesses, and the environment’. As Nana Takvarelia explains, the aim is to ‘generate evidence that can inform future infrastructure planning, business strategies, and economic decisions, ultimately helping to kick-start the development of large-scale reuse models’.

How quickly these early pilot projects catch on remains to be seen, but they mark an important step in a much-needed shift towards sustainability, especially in Georgia.