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Sustainability publication 2022

Sustainability of reusable packaging - Current Situation and Trends

Packaging plays an important role in safely distributing products throughout today’s society and supply chains. With a consumption of about 40% of plastics and 50% of paper in Europe, the packaging sector is a large user of materials. Packaging has a lot of environmental impacts, while it also represents a significant cost in the current supply system. Reusable packaging has been suggested as an option to significantly reduce environmental impacts. In this paper, researchers review the trends in reusable packaging and the literature on reusable packaging to generate insights into the current state-of-the-art knowledge and identify directions for research and development. This can help to better understand the key factors underlying the design and impacts of more sustainable packaging systems.

Reuse - Rethinking Packaging

This report provides a framework to understand reuse, identifies six major benefits of reuse, and maps 69 reuse examples. Based on an evaluation of more than 100 initiatives and interviews with over 50 experts, it aims to inspire and help structure thinking. It provides a basic description of how different reuse models work as well as typical implementation challenges.

Reusable VS single-use packaging: a review of the environmental impact

The study compares 32 Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of 11 different types of packaging, analysing their environmental impact at different stages of the product’s life. This includes parameters such as production, transport, number of reuse opportunities, and end-of-life treatment. Findings include that reusable crates have a lower environmental impact than single-use secondary packaging: a reusable plastic crate produces 88% fewer carbon emissions than a single-use cardboard box. The study points out that the environmental break-even point - the number of cycles a reusable crate must undergo to have comparable or lower environmental impacts than a single-use package occurs between the 3rd to the 15th use. Nonetheless, the more trips a reusable crate makes, the bigger environmental advantage it will have.

Carbon Footprint of Food packaging

The main objective of the study was to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of the reusable, collapsible plastic containers and the disposable cardboard containers and to subsequently compare them. To achieve the main objective, processes along the entire value chain of both packaging systems were considered, based on their actual transport performance in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France.