Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Those things don’t always work together. This call to action is one of the most widely known sustainability mantras. In essence, we, as consumers, are urged to minimize waste, find new purposes for old items, and transform our waste into new things. That equation doesn’t put any of the onus on the producers of these products and packaging at the end of life. And without their involvement, consumers must continually figure out how to appropriately dispose of products and their packaging. What happens when the well-known 3 R’s don’t act in tandem with each other, and it needs to be clarified if a reusable item can be recycled?
Reusable packaging isn’t new, but the concept has been heralded as a solution to our plastic and waste crisis. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition defines reusable packaging as “packaging that allows either the business or the consumer to put the same type of purchased product back into the original packaging, is designed to be returnable and/or refillable, and accomplishes a minimum number of reuses by being a part of a system that enables reuse.” While a consumer can choose to reuse a glass bottle or yogurt ramekin for a vase or some other type of home decor, when the packaging doesn’t get reused in the same way as it was initially used, it’s not technically reusable.
