Interplas Conference Preview: Reusable Plastic Packaging - Threat or Opportunity?

Ahead of her talk at Interplas, Sarah Greenwood, Packaging Technology Expert/Leader at Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, gives readers an insight into reusable plastic packaging and how improved legislation and initiatives can lead to greater opportunities.

The conversation between industry and the general public around single-use plastic packaging has reached stalemate.  The arguments that plastic materials can reduce overall carbon impact and that ‘plastic doesn’t throw itself in the ocean’ don’t make up for the fact that it is, well, ‘plastic’. People see the effects of the mismanagement of plastic packaging waste and, like all of us, want to see change. The UK Government is working on improved legislation (DRS, EPR, the plastics tax, consistency of collection etc) and a number of initiatives from across the supply chain are looking at improving recycling (e.g. CEFLEX for flexible plastic packaging and RECOUP for rigids). This isn’t happening quickly enough for the public who want to see immediate action, and brand-owners are filling this gap -  many are ditching plastic for card and paper alternatives, or even marketing bioplastics as ‘Plastic Free’. 

Over the last 20 years or so, the management of plastic packaging waste in the UK has largely been addressed through Reduction - minimisation at the specification stage (The Courtauld and subsequent commitments from WRAP) and improvements in Recycling, encouraged by European targets. However, sitting between Reduction and Recycling  in the waste hierarchy, and largely ignored up until now, is Reuse. Could reuse be an answer to the ‘Plastics Packaging Problem’ and what could that look like?

If a packaging container is reused for the same product for which it was designed  just once, the environmental burden of manufacturing that container, and the packaging waste, per unit amount of product is halved.  This continues to decrease with increasing number of uses - by 20 times the burden and waste is reduced to just 5% per use. Reuse of plastic containers is common in Germany, where soft drinks bottles are sent back to the manufacturer and refilled to be sold again - so could this be expanded to other products?  In our project Many Happy Returns, enabling reusable packaging systems funded by UKRI, this is what we are trying to find out.

Reusable packaging systems take two main forms - Refill where the consumer keeps hold of the original packaging container throughout its lifetime and tops it up, either from a lightweight refill pack or a bulk dispenser in store , and Return (often just ‘Reuse’) where the container is send back to the filler and used again for another customer (like the German carbonated drinks).  Although currently niche, interest is growing amongst consumers and there have been some high profile trials in the UK, including refill stations in a couple of Asda stores, and groceries delivered in returnable containers by Terracycle’s Loop via Tesco with more to come.

Following on from our previous project - Plastics:Redefining single-use, a multidisciplinary team at the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, the University of Sheffield, are investigating when reuse is  appropriate, in what form and what are the barriers that stop these new systems from becoming mainstream.  Polymer Scientists are looking at the right materials to use, environmental scientists are ensuring that the reuse process doesn’t produce any unintended consequences, and social scientists are looking at consumer, and producer, acceptance of reusable packaging systems, their willingness to engage and learning from past and existing systems. Language experts are examining how people talk about reuse and plastics and how this can be used to influence uptake in such schemes. 

Together with an extensive range of project partners, including national retailers, international brands and packaging manufacturers, we are developing projects that will allow us to answer these questions over a range of products.  By the time Interplas comes round, we will be using a trial of rentable takeaway containers in our university cafes as a Living Lab to observe consumer behaviour and check the longevity of the containers in the system.  Other projects are looking at the challenges involved in systems with longer supply chains- transport, washing and hygiene and the co-operation of stakeholders along them.

The takeaways food example is just a start at trying to understand the implications of introducing returnable systems for more complex products and bigger value chains (or rather circles?). If successful, these systems will turn packaging containers from throw-away items into assets to be cared for and may even shift the way the public think about plastic.