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Making waves: Jane Martin on City to Sea’s mission to reduce waste and protect our planet
Jane Martin and City to Sea are driving a transformative movement towards scalable reuse systems, challenging businesses, governments, and consumers to rethink packaging waste for a sustainable future.
Amid the buzzwords of modern environmentalism – recycling, upcycling, zero waste – one idea remains underexplored yet deeply promising: reuse. For Jane Martin, CEO of City to Sea, reuse isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s a practical, scalable solution to the systemic flaws in our current approach to waste. With a message that’s as clear as it is urgent, City to Sea’s work challenges businesses, governments, and consumers to rethink how we consume, dispose of, and interact with packaging in our daily lives.
Martin captures the essence of this mission with disarming clarity: “Everyone is busy – juggling kids, jobs, and everything else life throws at us. But, reusable packaging systems are viable. We’ve done it before with milkmen and grocery delivery. We can do it again!” It’s a call to action that doesn’t merely criticise the wastefulness of single-use systems but presents a compelling vision of a future where convenience, sustainability, and business profitability intersect.
At Packaging Innovations & Empack 2025, Martin will bring her years of experience and passion for reuse to The Big Debate on Wednesday, 12 February, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, on the Circular Economy stage. The discussion will explore whether reuse represents the future of packaging, challenging current trends in single-use plastics and providing a framework for businesses to adopt sustainable alternatives.
“Sometimes, living in this space and constantly talking about the circular economy, reusable packaging, and returnable packaging, you realise that you’re much further ahead than many people in their day-to-day lives,” she told Packaging Innovations & Empack. “We need people to consider reducing single-use packaging and adopting reusable systems in their daily lives and businesses.
“That’s one aspect of it, but much more importantly, how do we scale reuse? We’ve had systems like this before. I have a milkman. There was grocery delivery in the olden days, too. So, I want people to leave thinking, ‘How can I, through my business, reduce single-use packaging and implement a reusable system?’ And I’d like them to see examples of others doing it. It’s possible – cities have cup schemes, and Marks & Spencer has 23 stores offering products in returnable packaging. This can show them that a different, better way is possible.”
At the heart of this work lies a determination to scale reuse. City to Sea has developed innovative campaigns like Refill, which transformed public awareness around single-use water bottles by making refills accessible at over 45,000 locations in the UK. Now, they’re taking the same principles – awareness, accessibility, and action – and applying them to broader consumer goods, from beauty products to food packaging.
But the work goes beyond awareness campaigns. City to Sea also confronts systemic barriers, like the disproportionate subsidies for virgin plastics that make single-use packaging artificially cheap. Martin explains, “Reuse can’t compete with single-use packaging because the market is stacked in its favour.” City to Sea combines activism, research, and bold experimentation to overcome this. Their app-supported cup schemes in Cardiff and partnerships with brands like Marks & Spencer are examples of turning reuse into a practical, attractive alternative.
The call for change
Martin’s involvement in The Big Debate at Packaging Innovations & Empack 2025 will offer a pivotal opportunity to delve into these issues and discuss how the packaging industry can evolve in the face of growing environmental concerns. Her insight into scaling reuse systems will challenge delegates to reconsider their approach to packaging and rethink how they can contribute to the circular economy.
“Recycling has been a real obsession, as it’s a successful, profit-making business,” she added. “So, when you have something like systemic change in reuse, it’s less attractive to investors than a proven recycling system that offers a return on investment. The problem is that with only a 40% recycling rate, we won’t get where we need to be. Every path – recycling, incineration, or landfill – seems to point to reuse. When you talk about reducing waste and avoiding incineration, local authorities have turned to incineration, claiming it helps them reach zero waste in landfills. But that’s carbon-intensive and has gotten terrible press for generating more waste because incineration plants rely on councils delivering as much waste as possible, driving unsustainable behaviours. So, every avenue – recycling, incineration, landfill, or exporting waste – ultimately leads us to conclude that the answer is to invest in a circular economy and reusable packaging to address the environmental, biodiversity, and public health issues we face.”
City to Sea doesn’t just point out problems; it creates pathways for businesses to lead the charge. By leveraging brands’ expertise to “generate desire” and build consumer loyalty through refillable models, they show how reuse can drive profits and deepen customer relationships. As Martin points out, “Brands know how to sell things. They’ve been doing it forever. If they apply their marketing expertise to reuse, the transformation could happen faster than we think.
“What reuse offers brands and retailers uniquely is a locked-in loyalty loop. For example, I’m a perfect example of this with The Body Shop. I use their ginger shampoo and have always used it. It’s available for refills in a shop about 500 yards away. I use the refill bottles, and I go there every four months when my shampoo runs out. I’ve been doing this for years, and I know the lady filling it up. This creates a relationship, and they track my behaviour. They know how long it takes me to go through a bottle of ginger shampoo, and they can send me offers based on that. You build a consumer profile, understanding the volume they use, which is pretty unique.
“If you think about seasonal marketing, what’s everyone focusing on at the moment? Well, they’re trying to figure out what to get their niece, who’s into sustainability and is at university for Christmas. There are so many fantastic deodorant refills that can be delivered straight to their halls of residence. There are seasonal opportunities like this. So, our message to big brand owners is: You know how to do this. We’re here to do the awareness, activism, and research, and to drive behavioural change. But these big businesses have so much money, knowledge, and experience. We just need to turn them on, get them to focus on reuse, and see what could happen there.”
From beach-clean data to legislative advocacy, Martin and City to Sea unite stakeholders across sectors to tackle the issue at its roots. They understand that the battle for reuse isn’t just about convincing consumers to carry reusable bags; it’s about creating systems that make sustainability convenient and cost-effective for all. With bold ideas and a willingness to take risks, City to Sea is proving that reuse isn’t just an environmental aspiration – it’s an economic opportunity and a legacy worth fighting for.
“We started with water bottles – the most frequently found items on beaches. We’ve also run a behaviour change campaign in schools where we teach teachers and school nurses how to deliver period-positive and environmentally positive content to young people as they start their periods. They get to experience period pants, discuss different products and their environmental impacts, and understand the social justice benefits of saving with reusables. This has significantly increased teachers’ ability to have these conversations, even though they have so much else on their plate. It also reduces the amount of period products flushed down toilets, which helps prevent overflows and fatbergs. We focus on products we see washing up on beaches, so that’s why we’re currently focusing on food packaging and the food-to-go sector.”
Driving reuse
Martin’s career has taken her from launching bottled water products to spearheading a global movement for reuse. Her experience in brand marketing with some of the world’s largest drinks companies, including Britvic Soft Drinks, provided her with deep insights into consumer goods’ environmental and social impact. Today, as a leader at City to Sea, Martin is leveraging her expertise to tackle plastic pollution and drive systemic change.
“Hilariously, I launched a bottled water product for Britvic in 2002 or 2003. It was called Drench,” she recalls. “At the time, I worked on J2O, Budweiser, and other big brands. Looking back, I saw the generation of unnecessary waste and the huge sums of money spent to drive sales. Our main concern back then was the sugar content in drinks marketed to children. But over time, I began questioning the purpose of my work.”
Martin’s reflections highlight the tension between traditional brand marketing and sustainability. “Brand marketing can be quite shallow,” she says. “I don’t have a problem with great products that bring real benefits, and it’s great to see progress like B Corp certifications. But it’s laughable when brands claim they’re purpose-driven organisations yet fail to invest meaningfully in projects that are better for the environment. It’s often just hashtag marketing.”
Despite these frustrations, Martin acknowledges the critical role businesses play in driving change. “We need a thriving economy and access to good products – it’s an essential part of life. But do I think brands and retailers are doing enough? No, I don’t. I’ve seen the level of energy and money put into increasing market share for laundry detergents or other products. That same level of investment isn’t being put into innovative reuse projects, which comes from the very top.”
Martin points to systemic barriers, including subsidies for virgin plastics, that make it difficult for reuse solutions to compete. “Virgin plastic is dirt cheap because of the power of the plastic lobby and government subsidies for fossil fuels. The market is stacked in favour of single-use packaging, and that has to change.”
City to Sea’s Reuse Manifesto and other advocacy efforts aim to shift the market toward more sustainable practices. “We’re encouraging businesses to invest in reuse within a predictable legislative framework,” Martin explains. She cites support from brands like Unilever for a global plastics treaty as an example of progress, noting, “It’s in their best interest to have clarity across territories.”
Through initiatives like the Global Reuse Summit, Martin and her team are working to address one of reuse’s biggest challenges: financial viability. “To make reuse profitable, you need high volumes of products for economies of scale to kick in,” she says. “We’re discussing leveraging existing supply chains, attracting investment, and making reuse models competitive.”
City to Sea’s campaigns, such as their Cardiff Cup scheme supported by an app, demonstrate how reuse can be implemented at scale. “We’ve launched our own initiatives and shared what we learned—even our failures – because everyone’s terrified of failure. But that’s the only way we progress.”
Behaviour change is another critical area of focus. Drawing on City to Sea’s successful Refill campaign, which established over 45,000 refill locations for water in the UK, Martin outlines the organisation’s model: awareness, accessibility, and action. “People are now aware of the problem with single-use plastic bottles. We’ve given them an action—carry a reusable bottle and use our app to find free refills. And we’ve made it accessible with visible stickers at refill locations.”
Expanding this approach to other products, such as homeware and beauty items, requires addressing psychological barriers. “There’s a fear of looking foolish or making a mess,” Martin notes. “For mass behaviour change, reuse must be easy, convenient, accessible, and affordable. It has to fit into people’s routines rather than expecting them to go out of their way.”
Martin stresses the importance of aligning business efforts with government policy. “Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) should prioritise reuse more explicitly. Why melt glass for recycling when you could wash and reuse it? Education about why reuse is better than recycling is still lagging.”
She is particularly critical of policies that fail to address upstream issues, such as plastic production. “Plastic is essentially made from fossil fuels, and while demand for fossil fuels is decreasing in sectors like vehicles, the industry is driving up demand for single-use packaging. It’s absurd.”
Despite the challenges, Martin is optimistic about the opportunities for reuse in the UK. “We could lead Europe by investing in infrastructure like washing facilities and logistics for reuse. This could create jobs, boost high streets, and establish a positive legacy for future generations. It’s not just about addressing plastic pollution—it’s about building a better economic model.”
For Martin, the goal is not just to clean up the planet but to inspire systemic change. “At City to Sea, we help organisations turn their legacy around for future generations. We see frustration, but we also see incredible potential. By working together – businesses, governments, and consumers – we can protect our beautiful places and create a thriving, sustainable future.”
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Latest news from Packaging Innovations & Empack
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