Bexley diners can now take restaurant meals home in reusable containers through a pilot program that organizers say is the first of its kind in Ohio. Launched in September, the program offers stainless-steel containers with durable plastic lids at six restaurants: Kittie’s Cafe, Harvest Pizzeria, Khaab Indian Kitchen and Bar, Moshi Sushi, Peking Dynasty and Zencha Bexley. Customers can return a container to any participating restaurant, and they do not need to be Bexley residents to take part. To participate, customers download the Okapi Reusables app, pay a one-time $10 fee and use the app and QR codes to check out and return containers. Participating restaurants wash the containers along with their regular dishes. Green Bexley, a community sustainability group, worked with Okapi to bring the program to Bexley after spending much of 2026 preparing the pilot. Green Bexley vice chair Rhys Gruebel compared the system to borrowing a library book: customers take a container home and bring it back when they are finished. The program is intended to reduce disposable takeout packaging and the waste communities must manage, Gruebel said. Kittie’s Cafe co-owner Steve Herman called the effort worthwhile and said use at his restaurant had grown from roughly one or two containers a day to five to 10 a day. The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio and the city of Bexley helped fund the pilot, according to Green Bexley. Gruebel said Okapi’s reusable coffee-cup program operates in cities around the country, but Bexley is the first Ohio community to offer the company’s reusable takeout-food container program.