Designing the way back to reuse

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.

It’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.

This is the purpose of the World Economic Forum Consumers Beyond Waste (CBW) initiative’s community papers, released in conjunction with the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit during UN General Assembly week earlier this year.

Featuring Design Guidelines, Safety Guidelines, and The City Playbook, the documents offer a holistic view for reuse in different environments, and are authored by a variety of stakeholders for a less wasteful future; I am one of them, along with TerraCycle and Loop colleagues, city officials, retailers and many more leaders from the public and private sector.

Considerations for durable packaging systems

The Design Guidelines specifically focus on a set of attributes (materials, container design, artwork/labeling and technology) for reusable containers.

If a package is cleaned a number of times at a certain temperature, intended to be refrigerated, or interacts with corrosive substances (such as household cleaners and some food and beverage items), it should be made of a material that will not prematurely degrade aesthetically or functionally, and maintains the integrity of the product inside.

Then there’s the design of the container. Interdependent to the material choice and intention for the package (food and beverage or industrial cleaners, or a package that could work for either), the shape of the container itself, as well as its composition, are conducive to proper cleaning, space-efficient storage, and minimal damage or (safe) breakage in a variety of scenarios.

For example, our Loop reuse system requires brands and manufacturers entering the platform to have products withstand a minimum of ten reuse cycles to qualify, and be recyclable into itself at end-of-life. We assess through phases of stress tests featuring drops from different angles, chemical compatibility measurement, transport trials, and more.

Through reverse logistics, we’ve found it’s possible to recover durable packaging forms in combinations of materials that improve functionality above and beyond many single-use packages, such as a resealable food container or soap pump with a spring top.

For the dimensions of artwork/labeling, there are a variety of techniques that are more or less permanent and also have implications for modularity. For example, a label that is etched onto a glass container is more challenging to change than a peel-off label. This may last for a number of uses, but a chip or scratch might obscure the decoration enough to become a liability.

The last dimension for container design, technology, provides the tracking and identification capability to prevent losses and link to larger systems in the supply chain. Again, reuse and life cycle of containers, or the reuse system – refilling, use, collection, storage/transport, cleaning, and initial production and end-of-life – are inextricably linked to these attributes.

Getting back on board

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. This is top priority for Loop as we expand.

Today for grocery we have Tesco in the United Kingdom leading the way with the most SKUs on the platform, Carrefour in France planning to expand to more locations across their hypermarkets, grocery and convenience stores next year, Aeon in Japan and Walgreens and Kroger’s Fred Meyer banner soon in the United States.

In QSR (quick service restaurant), McDonald’s was the first to pilot the model in select stores in the UK, followed by Tim Horton’s in Canada then Burger King in several countries in the coming months.

Where companies may initially look to stand out with their designs in order to drive short-term value, appeal and competitiveness, they cannot work in silos. Because while the general public is finally putting the onus on brands and manufacturers to design more responsibly, it’s the suppliers and vendors that need to get on board in order for reuse to scale.

Modular, standardized designs for reuse have the potential to unlock large quantity orders for certain container designs, which minimizes risk and increases incentives around increased production, supply line upgrades and investments, and the prioritization of systems change.

Today we know the take-make-waste model is unsustainable, degrades the environment and wastes finite resources, so a fundamental shift is needed in how we use materials. But, as it offers convenience and cost-effectiveness to consumers, changing course must make reuse work for companies, retailers and local governments by driving value, with less waste. n