Our society has a longstanding relationship with and dependency on single-use
products.
Businesses and consumers alike are accustomed to its virtues of cost and
convenience, making everyday items accessible to more people than ever before.
But because of this reliance and focus on a system that takes, makes and wastes
products after one use, few guidelines or blueprints for viable, sustainable
alternatives — including reuse — exist in a usable format.
Reuse
models
are growing across the modern economy, but they are fragmented such that they
cannot achieve impact of scale. Without foundational guidelines to drive
collaboration, standardization and defining of best practices, it would be
near-impossible for new and emerging reuse models to effectively implement or
accelerate for impact.
But there’s a case for doing so. Reuse systems can reduce plastic pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions; and they are estimated to present a $10 billion
business
opportunity
if only 20 percent of single-use packaging today were converted to reuse. So,
how do we ensure everyone gets what they need out of their products — without
the waste?
Many would argue that ending packaging waste begins with
design.
Modern packages are lightweight, inexpensive and high-function (the world is
used to the spouts, resealable closures, and easy-open tops of single-use
containers), and literally designed to go in the trash. Defining the
specifications of a package that can be physically and systematically reused is
one of the first things to do.
Then, determining exactly how many times said package can be cycled around
(including collection, cleaning and refilling for the next person to enjoy)
before it comes out superior to single-use demonstrates the value. The fewer
times, the better; but a recommendation from an industry expert or experienced
practitioner in the space can help businesses at different stages in their
journey consider how and when reuse will work for them.
There are a lot of ideas and concepts out there; but with so much work to do in
solving single-use plastic waste, clear and consistent guardrails for reuse will
steer the way for scaled, widespread adoption and impact. This is the purpose of
the World Economic Forum (WEF) Consumers Beyond Waste (CBW)
initiative’s
community papers, released in conjunction with the WEF’s Sustainable
Development Impact Summit during UN General Assembly week earlier this
year.
Featuring Design Guidelines,
Safety Guidelines and
The City Playbook, the
documents are authored by a variety of contributors with a stake in the race to
a less wasteful world; I am one of them — along with city officials,
quality-assurance experts, retailers and many more leaders from the public and
private sector. The papers offer a holistic view for
reuse in
different environments, as well as the different entry points for stakeholders
along the supply chain.
Offering recommendations based on experience,
Loop
has our own design guidelines for brands and manufacturers entering the platform
— we recommend a product be able to withstand a minimum of 10 reuse cycles to
qualify, and be recyclable into itself at the end of its life.
Through this approach we have seen tremendous innovation, not just in
sustainability but also in packaging design. Through reverse logistics, it’s
possible to recover durable packaging forms in combinations of materials that
improve functionality above and beyond the convenience of many single-use
packages, such as a resealable food container or spring-loaded soap
pump.
Designing for reuse also includes the architecture of the systems packages flow
through. Where Loop is a coalition of major consumer product companies and
leading retailers working with trusted vendors to transport, clean, store and
refill containers, it's a matter of front and backend design to enable a
manufacturer to produce reusables that can be sold at any retailer for a
consumer to buy and return anywhere, safely and conveniently.
Where today’s largest scaled reuse model is pre-fill, which allows the consumer
to buy filled products on a store shelf and return the empties into a bin (think
beverages in Germany or propane tanks in the US), the challenge is that
the models are incompatible: Empty propane tanks cannot be returned to the same
location as an empty beer keg, and vice versa.
Creating a “buy anywhere, return anywhere” ecosystem for reusables will make it
easy for consumers to access, and businesses to sell. This, too, is a feat of
design. Residents in Loop markets can now enter their favorite retailers and
find a part of the store dedicated to reuse. With purchase, a deposit is paid,
which is refunded in full upon return to any Loop retailer, putting this “waste”
into a designated reuse bin versus a trash can or recycling bin.
Just before the community papers I mentioned earlier, CBW released the Future
of Reusable Consumption Models report, which outlined aspects of a
“successful, large-scale, system-wide reuse
paradigm.”
One of these is consumer experience, where people have access to a variety of
reusables that can compete with disposables on a number of scales, including
convenience.
People purchase consumables in a variety of settings, so it's important they
have access to a variety of experiences. For grocery, we have Tesco in the
UK; Carrefour in France; Aeon in Japan; and Walgreens
and Kroger’s Fred Meyer banner coming soon in the US; and the biggest names
in QSR (quick service restaurant):
McDonald’s
was the first to pilot the model in select stores in the UK, with Tim Horton’s
in Canada and Burger
King
in several countries to follow.
Which brings us to the matter of public health and safety, which have a great
deal to do with packaging and systems design. Consumers need to know a system
that circulates containers is safe and sanitary. Different product categories
have different health and safety requirements — the food and beverage industry
tends to have stricter standards than body care and cosmetics, for example.
Packaging durability is a huge factor in designing for safety, as it impacts
cleaning processes, degradation, and consumer safety and ease of use. If a
package is cleaned 10 times at a certain temperature, materials must not
prematurely degrade aesthetically or functionally; and if the type of material
is one that might break with the consumer or along the route, design or
logistics must allow it to do so safely; communications can support proper
handling and education.
Government plays a role in overseeing regulations for public health. As the
Governor of the City of Tokyo stated in Loop and the World Economic Forum’s
recent United Nations week press conference, “Large cities in developed
countries, such as Tokyo, can make a significant impact on the global economy by
playing a leading role,” noting reuse was standard in the region for glass
bottles for beer, sake and more just 30 years ago.
Cities are complex ecosystems that both exacerbate and suffer from the scale of
the waste crisis. In the City Playbook, CBW notes some of the greatest
challenges cities face are funding, infrastructure and institutional barriers;
so, the consensus to pushing initiatives through includes seeking ways to answer
big questions about viability and benefit. This is key to developing a roadmap
for cities that is socially equitable, environmentally positive and
safe.
Examples of actions cities might take for the short term include aligning reuse
with existing objectives (i.e. job creation and economic development) or testing
reusables for city government administration (i.e. food service and cafeteria
for public buildings), so as to engage policymakers, NGOs, local businesses,
media, residents and the many other internal and external stakeholders towards
the vision for a circular city.
Points of consensus are milestones in the journey out of the waste crisis.
Agreement on key areas of design, safety and city programming minimizes risk,
drives collaboration and provides changemakers trustworthy information for
stewarding reuse strategies and program development within organizations.
There’s so much room for innovation; but to bring them to scale, actors must
come together over a shared vision, with the resources to back it up.
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Tom Szaky is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, the company recycling the non-recyclable; and Loop, the world’s first shopping system delivering products in reusable packaging.
Published Nov 12, 2021 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET