Kadeya's vending machine hides a one-bottle-shape dishwasher so bottles refill in place

In a January 2023 Fast Company piece, Adele Peters writes about Kadeya, a Chicago startup whose machine sells drinks in reusable bottles and then takes them back, sanitizes them, and refills them for someone else. Founder and CEO Manuela Zoninsein says she thinks of it as combining a bottling plant with a dishwasher with a soda fountain.

Zoninsein got the idea after working for several years in China, where she saw single-use packaging grow from 2007 to 2015. At a New York office she convinced her employer to set up refill stations and reusable bottles, but many coworkers did not switch, so she began imagining a different option.

The first version serves water in glass bottles, with other drinks and stainless steel bottles planned. Water comes out of one side when someone scans a QR code, and the empty bottle goes back in on the other. The dishwasher inside is custom, and Zoninsein says it outperforms the best industrial dishwashers because it is designed to wash one bottle shape over and over, giving a perfectly targeted wash.

Reuse programs fail when users must remember to bring a bottle.

One bottle shape lets the wash be designed around it.

Taking the bottle back inside the machine keeps it in the loop.

A QR scan makes the transaction as quick as an ordinary vending purchase.

Standardizing the container lets you over-engineer one step, here the wash, so reuse works without behavior change.

The first pilot, per the article, was a large construction site in Indianapolis. The construction company must supply water to workers under OSHA regulations and previously had to stock bottled water for more than 100 tradespeople each day. The article gives no usage or savings data.