Reusable Packaging is Declining, Exacerbating the Plastics Crisis

The share of reusable packaging used by leading CPG companies is falling, meaning an increasing share is disposable plastic

Reuse is widely recognised as the best way to reduce reliance on single-use plastic packaging. Here’s what some leading organisations say:

• Reuse holds the key to achieving a world free of plastic pollution - World Economic Forum

• Studies show that reuse systems provide the highest opportunity to reduce plastic pollution - UN Environment Programme

• The #ReuseRevolution is the answer to the plastics crisis – Greenpeace

Despite the potential of reuse, consumer goods companies today are using even less reusable packaging than they did in 2018 (as a share of their total packaging). Put another way, the share of their packaging that is disposable plastic is higher now than 5 years ago.

The best data we have on reuse levels is from the companies that signed up to the Global Commitment, an initiative that “unites businesses, governments, NGOs, and investors behind a common vision of a circular economy in which we eliminate the plastic we don't need; innovate towards new materials and business models; and circulate all the plastic we still use, to keep it in the economy and out of the environment”.

It shows that for brand and retail signatories, reuse as a share of packaging fell from 1.6% in 2019 to 1.3% in 2023. Nearly 99% of the packaging these companies use is disposable plastic and it’s rising.

Arguably, these companies are the most motivated to address the plastic crisis, and the overall picture is worse.

Instead of working towards genuinely circular solutions like reuse, signatories are focusing on making their plastic packaging ‘recyclable’. But recycling as a solution is broken and recyclability a farce.  As everyone in this field well knows, just 9% of plastic is recycled globally and on current trends that’ll still only 17% by 2060 (OECD baseline scenario). And by far the majority of plastic collected for recycling goes to landfill, gets burnt or escapes to the environment. Plastic recycling is a cover rather than a solution.

And while companies work to make plastic packaging ‘recyclable’ as the Global Commitment encourages, they continue to increase the amount of plastic packaging used. Since 2018, overall signatory plastic use is up 6.5%, and since the Global Commitment refrains from asking companies to commit to overall plastic use targets, there’s no cap in sight.

If we are serious about reducing our reliance on plastic, we need to move to reuse.