New guidance has been published by RECOUP to assist the design of reusable plastic packaging that ‘meets the needs of the value chain from packaging manufacturers, packers/fillers, brands, retailers, consumers, service providers through to waste management companies.’

The result of research, surveys, workshops and interviews, the report provides recommendations on how to overcome the main challenges in seeing the wide-scale adoption of reusable packaging; customer uptake, implementation cost and traceability. A successful design process would need to involve collaboration as well as consideration of the whole value chain’s needs.

Reusability by Design: Technical characteristics

Technical characteristics requiring consideration included:

• Material choice and durability
• Packaging size and shape
• Product visibility
• Closure type
• Tamper evidence requirements
• Decoration

These would need to be addressed alongside other practical considerations such as food safety, washing and cleaning requirements, and transportation, as well as end-of-life scenarios and any potential tracking technologies.

Document scope

The scope of the document includes the following areas:

• Rigid plastic packaging: The report focuses on rigid plastic on account of its durability and versatility as a packaging material.
• Business-to-consumer food and drink packaging: Due to the strict requirements of the sector, food and drink packaging would likely meet the criteria for non-food products.
• Value chain focus: The report ‘endeavoured’ to capture viewpoints from across the whole supply and value chain.
• Geographic focus: The report incorporates experience outside the UK but keeps the main findings UK-focused.
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID): The report covers the incorporation of RFID tracing technology to identify and track items through reuse cycles, but the guidelines are still relevant to reusable packaging that is not technology-enabled or that uses another form of technology.
• Reusable packaging design: Whilst the report focuses on reusable packaging design, it recognises that consideration of reusable systems design is intrinsically linked.
• Reuse systems: The research for project TRACE focuses on in-store return and delivery models of business-to-consumer reusable packaging.

Katherine Fleet, Head of Sustainability and Circularity at RECOUP said “Reuse represents a key element of achieving the circular economy for packaging and while we have seen the implementation of a number of small-scale trials of reuse systems, large-scale implementation has not yet been achieved. It is hoped that these guidelines, which reflect stakeholder’s views, along with the wider findings of project TRACE, will assist with progress towards a world where reuse is more commonplace for packaging.”

The guidance was produced as part of a TRACE (Technology-enabled Reusable Assets for a Circular Economy) project, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), led by Pragmatic in partnership with RECOUP, University of Sheffield, Topolytics, AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) and Ken Mills Engineering.