18 December 2025

Looking Back at 2025

This year, CLUBZERØ moved decisively from proving reuse systems work to scaling them commercially. We expanded operations across major banks in London through ISS A/S, one of the UK's largest contract caterers, launched at Expo City Dubai, and scaled closed-loop systems across offices, major events, and universities. Throughout, our technology platform delivered what matters: 95-98% return rates, measurable environmental impact, and operational data that demonstrates commercial viability.

We built coalitions through industry roundtables, positioned Wales as the staging ground for digital DRS infrastructure, and earned global recognition as U.S. Plastics Pact 2025 Sustainable Packaging Innovation Award winners, validating our position as digital infrastructure leaders in the circular economy transition.

As EPR and DRS frameworks expanded across 43+ countries, what was voluntary sustainability became regulatory necessity. 2025 proved the infrastructure works at scale. 2026 is about deploying it before the window closes.

Scaling Reuse across On-Trade Environments

Our expansion with ISS demonstrates how reuse infrastructure scales through established corporate partnerships. ISS operates as one of the UK's largest facility management and catering companies, and in 2025 we deployed our Reuse System to major banks in London through their operations.

Our technology platform tracked every container movement, measured environmental impact in real-time (co2 emissions, water savings, energy savings, waste savings (paper & plastic), and achieved 95%+ return rates through seamless integration with existing workflows.

Our platform provides comprehensive business intelligence including container tracking, return rate monitoring, environmental impact quantification that demonstrates value to both ISS and their corporate clients. Positive feedback drove expansion, with January 2026 bringing deployment to additional sites. The contract caterer relationship becomes the expansion mechanism, leveraging established corporate procurement to scale from offices to sporting venues, airports, and corporate hospitality. BaxterStorey partnerships complemented ISS expansion, providing additional channels across universities and corporate venues.

To date, across UK, UAE and U.S. markets we have processed in excess of 3 million packaging rotations in high-volume consumer contexts saving 45 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere and over 27 tonnes of waste from landfills.

Expo City Dubai marked our Middle East launch, extending proven infrastructure to a third major market and demonstrating operational flexibility using the same core technology platform, adapted to different regulatory frameworks and logistics networks while maintaining performance standards.

Building Coalition for System Change

Throughout 2025, we convened industry roundtables bringing together government agencies, retailers, producers, and waste contractors to align on infrastructure requirements and regulatory readiness. These weren't networking events, they were working sessions that built the coalitions necessary for system-wide change.

Reuse infrastructure requires coordination across stakeholders who traditionally operate in silos. Our roundtables created the frameworks for waste contractors to work with retailers, for producers to coordinate with regulators, and for logistics partners to integrate with collection networks.

As technology providers with proven systems across on-trade, retail, and closed-loop environments, we positioned ourselves to power the digital infrastructure these coalitions need. Our experience processing millions of rotations of reusable packaging items across three markets demonstrated what operational viability looks like and showed how technology removes friction rather than adding complexity. This coalition-building became as critical as the technology itself, ensuring that when infrastructure requirements get defined, they're based on systems that actually work at commercial scale.

Wales: Where Policy Meets Practice

2025 positioned Wales as the critical staging ground for digital reuse infrastructure at scale. We engaged with Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government, major retailers, producers, and waste contractors to define what a Digital DRS trial should look like and test before launch.

These discussions focused on critical operational questions: kerbside collection versus RVMs, GS1-standard serialization for individual container tracking, and AI-powered coordination across washing and logistics networks. The conversations in 2025 set the parameters for infrastructure specifications that will define reuse systems.

Cardiff emerged as the strategic launchpad for 2026. The city provides the scale needed for credible proof points while offering manageable complexity for infrastructure deployment, creating the template for UK-wide expansion.

We're watching the space carefully ahead of the Welsh DMO announcement in March 2026. As technology providers with proven reuse infrastructure across three markets globally, we're positioned to support the Welsh DMO with the digital systems necessary for both the reuse trial and DRS system digitalization.

What 2026 Brings

Wales Digital Infrastructure Pilot - October 2027 launch timeline requires the digital infrastructure and operational decisions now. We're coordinating with waste contractors, retailers, and logistics partners to ensure tracking capabilities, collection networks, sortation capabilities, and washing capacity align before regulatory deadlines hit.

Cardiff Market Entry - Launch Welsh operations in 2026, establishing the operational model that scales nationally. This means deploying collection infrastructure, activating retail partnerships, and demonstrating the annual revenue opportunity Wales represents. Cardiff proves the model; the UK follows. CLUBZERØ supports entire reuse system required to meet regulation with cutting-edge AI technology that tracks deposits, monitors returns, and key data on environmental metrics.

On-Trade Expansion - January 2026 brings discusses to expand across additional contract caterer sites following successful London rollout. The on-trade model scales from proven office locations to sporting venues, airports, and corporate hospitality through established procurement relationships.

Regulatory Wave Acceleration - Singapore's BCRS starts in 2026. UK DRS launches October 2027. EU PPWR mandates requiring QR codes on reusable packaging take effect February 2029. The 18-month window from 2026-2027 determines who owns reuse infrastructure as these regulations activate across 43+ countries.

📧 For producer participation inquiries or potential trial involvement, contact us directly at hello@clubzero.co. There will be a limited number of spaces available for the Cardiff trial, please get in touch today if you’re keen to be involved.