DESIGNING THE WAY BACK TO REUSE Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, explains why we need to completely rethink reuse models if we want them to gain a larger market share.
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t’s only been about 70 years since disposability became the norm. Before mass production and the advent of inexpensive materials such as plastic, waste reduction and reuse were intuitive. While it can be a short way back, the path will be complex, as single-use models have matured such that they’ve become ingrained into the business of consumer goods.
Modern reuse models are incompatible Reuse is far from new and today exists across the modern economy. However, its models are so fragmented that as a solution for single-use packaging waste it cannot achieve the scale needed for impact. In many ways, ending packaging waste starts with design and does not stop at the containers, but extends to the architecture of the systems packages flow through. Today, the largest scaled reuse model is prefill, which allows the purchase of filled products at stores and the return of the empties into a bin. Think propane tanks in the US, or returnable beverage containers in Germany. The challenge is the models are incompatible: empty propane tanks cannot be returned to the same location as an empty beer keg, and vice versa. The design of a ‘buy anywhere, return anywhere’ ecosystem for reusables across categories – namely fast-moving consumer goods in food and beverage, household and personal care – will make it easy for consumers to access, businesses to sell, and governments to benefit from.
Challenges for converting from single-use In order to offer viable alternatives to single-use, reuse must deliver on its virtues, and better. Modern packages are lightweight, inexpensive and easy to use. They are also high-functioning, featuring spouts, resealable closures, and easy open tops, as well as multi-layer technologies that extend freshness and quality in transit, on store shelves and with end-users. With all their innovative add-ons and fitments, single-use has been standardized such that modular, disposable designs exist across industries. Suppliers sell aluminum cans and flexible plastic pouches in similar shapes around the world, and filling lines have been calibrated to their weights and configurations for interchangeable distribution and shelf space in every market. Some brands (in collaboration with their vendor partners and suppliers) have never before worked with steel or glass. Existing capabilities need to recalibrate for heavier, durable containers, or new ones need to be built. Either way, modularity for reusable containers supports optimization for the systems carrying them, for widespread learnings and replication.
Guidelines for implementing reuse Defining the specifications of a package that can be physically reused, and by what parameters, is one of the ways to achieve this. The films of plastic shopping bags are often sturdy enough for reuse, for instance, but this is not their intent; they are not collected and recirculated by manufacturers and retailers, or cleaned, stored and transported beyond the initial use. Packaging Europe | 11 |
