Client

Dizzie

Project

Circular Packaging

Year

2022

Services

Packaging Design

Ethnographic Research

Design Strategy

Industrial Design

Product Design

Design for Manufacture

Manufacture Support

Visualisation

Single beige reusable food container pot with an orange label on a grey background.
Hands holding a small reusable grocery container with a blue lid.
Industrial crate filled with rows of white reusable plastic container pots.

Dizzie is on a mission to free the world from pointless plastic, making reusable packaging the new norm. Dizzie (formerly Good Club) is an online grocery delivery service, where the customer can have their monthly staples delivered to their door in reusable pots. These pots, designed by BLOND, can be decanted, or stored; to later be collected, washed and reused by Dizzie.

Hands sorting reusable packaging pots inside an industrial transport box.

Although it may seem to be a simple pot—the design challenge was extensive. The pots needed to be hard-wearing but still recyclable at the end of their life. They needed to be made from materials that could stand up to reuse and industrial dishwashers while being cost-effective to manufacture. It was important that a variety of sizes be available for the various food types, but on the other hand, too many could overcomplicate the service. Logistics added further challenges: the pots needed to stack together when not being used to save space in the warehouse and reduce the carbon footprint while transporting them. Finally, the pots needed to be designed in a way that would ensure simple and effective cleaning when returned to the Dizzie warehouse.

Technical wireframe graphic showing container outline against a dark background.
Factory floor space with pallets and equipment for reusable container processing.
Presentation board displaying concept sketches and structural design drawings.

Early ideation uncovered a simple solution to a complex problem: nesting and tesselating pots. Inspired by the stacking format of a bento box, our design comprises of three sizes of pot (small, medium and large), designed to nest together when filled by being fractions of one another. For example, one large pot is equal to three small pots, and one medium pot is equal to two small pots. Not only does this help with shipping—it also helps the customer to keep an organised and clutter-free cupboard (if they choose to keep the pots, as opposed to decanting them). Once decanted, the tapered sides of the pot allow the empty vessels to nest together more tightly, meaning that the consumer does not need to arrange collection for every order—further reducing the carbon footprint of the Dizzie service.

Colourful containers stacked for Dizzie reusable container pots.
Three dark grey cylindrical reusable packaging pots set side-by-side.
A time-lapse video showing various arrangements of colorful Dizzie packaging pots from a front view.
Cross section image of reusable packaging pots stacked vertically by size.
Four white reusable packaging pots lined up in order of increasing size.
Close-up view of a green plastic lid rim attached to a translucent container.

Although the Dizzie pots may seem simple, a lot of thought has been paid to various needs of a circular packaging product, for example; a small ridge near the opening allows the pot to be held in autonomous filling machines—and the tapered internal has been designed to be as clutter-free as possible; to allow them to be easily cleaned with Dizzie’s state-of-the-art industrial dishwashers.

Beige reusable container pot showing perforated holes near the top rim.
Factory shot of a machine adding lids to food jars.
Wooden shipping pallet loaded high with neatly stacked white packaging pots.
Flowchart graphic illustrating the returnable packaging cycle and logistics steps.
Detailed close-up view of a beige plastic tub lid with secure latch mechanism.
An outdoor video showing green plastic transport crates filled with rainwater.
Green line wireframe CAD rendering of container structures on black.
Bright green plastic transport crate fitted with a black secure lid section.
Side profile view of a beige rectangular reusable tub container.
Cross section view of a beige rectangular reusable tub container with lid attached.
Angled perspective view of a beige rectangular reusable tub container.
A time-lapse video showing a beige rectangular reusable tub with an open lid and small cylindrical packaging containers inside.
Line up shot of containers with green labels showing the various heights.
Hand holding a colour reference book next to reusable packaging containers.
Beige reusable tub containers inside an industrial washing machine chamber.
Cupped hands holding raw material pellets used for container manufacturing.

The pots are made from a biocomposite—which consists of wood fibres and bio-polypropylene (waste and residue oils). The wood fibres are a by-product of the forestry industry and come from sustainably harvested forests, including the forest around the biocomposite production facility. Using this biocomposite means that the Dizzie pots are made from 98% renewable materials. Being designed and built for circularity, the Dizzie pots are re-used as many times as possible. Initial tests indicate that they can be reused 100+ times. At the end of their life, they are 100% recyclable. Additionally, Dizzie can return the pots to the manufacturer to be recycled into the same objects, creating a closed-loop process.

A video showing a large industrial molding machine producing reusable plastic packaging pots.
Close-up detail view of mechanical components on a manufacturing line.
Two design engineers inspecting container production equipment in a factory.
Close-up of injection moulding tool in factory setting.
Close-up looking into the opening of stacked white plastic container pots.