Page 56 - Plastics News August - 2023

BUSINESS NEWS

Reusable and refillable packaging sales to reach $53.4 billion by 2027, says
Smithers

he US-based consultancy firm has ally to reach $53.4 billion by 2027. ditional transportation,” the company
Tpublished a white paper giving an Business models for reusable and said in the whitepaper.
overview of the five main strategies refillable packaging includes refill at Nestle, which introduced a steel re-
global brands are deploying to achieve home, return from home, refill in fillable container for their powdered
plastic reduction goals. store, return in store, and deposit chocolate milk brand Nesquick, has
Global brands like Nestle, PepsiCo, return schemes. These initiatives are run over 20 trials and, so far, results
Mars, P&G, Coca Cola, and Kraft at the core of the European Commis- have not met the company’s re-
Heinz are responding to pressure to sion’s proposal for a revision of EU purchase and return rates. The main
reduce their use of virgin plastics but legislation on packaging and packing reasons are “consumer expectations
are struggling to hit their goals, Smith- waste introduced last November. The of high convenience at low costs and
ers has said in a newly published white policy targets a reduction of packaging quality challenges,” Smithers said.
paper. waste by 15% by 2040 per Member The company noted that while the
The market intelligence firm, pro- State per capita, compared to 2018 performance of reusable and refillable
viding services for the packaging, levels. packaging is already at a similar level
paper, and print industries, outlined Smithers noted that new initiatives to virgin plastic, its cost is still higher
five strategies global companies are are gathering attention as an oppor- and is unlikely to reach parity by 2030.
deploying to achieve plastic reduc- tunity to reduce overall packing use. Lack of current availability at com-
tion goals. These include switching to This July, for example, UK-based re- mercial scale and modest consumer
fibre-based or biodegradable packag- cycling technology expert Polytag and perception are also considerable ob-
ing, increasing post-consumer recy- Sweden-based recycling app Bower stacles to widespread adoption of re-
clate (PCR) content through product teamed up with online supermarket usable and refillable packaging.
design and chemical recycling, and de- Ocado Retail to roll out the world’s “Making progress will require not
ploying reusable and refillable packag- first digital deposit return scheme for just a new systems-level approach
ing. milk containers. to change delivery models to include
Global sales of reusable and refill- However, “reusable and refillable reverse logistics and reduced carbon
able packaging reached $42 billion in packaging is considerably less conven- transportation options, but also a fun-
2022, showing a modest compound ient for consumers and will require damental shift in consumer attitudes
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.0% significant changes to existing supply and behaviours,” the white paper
since 2017, Smithers said. It forecasts chains to accommodate it without concluded.
growth to accelerate to 4.9% annu- increasing carbon footprint from ad-

56 PLASTICS NEWS August 2023
56 PLASTICS NEWS
August 2023