(629g) Many Happy Returns: Combining Environmental, Technological and Behavioural Sciences to Understand What Is Required to Make Reusable Packaging Sustainable.

There is currently over 7.3 billion tons of plastic in the Earth System, and it will grow to be 40 billion tons by 2050. Increased plastic consumption has resulted in high amounts of plastic waste ending up in the environment. Approximately 12 million tons of plastics accumulate in different environmental compartments (i.e. soil, freshwater and the ocean) every year. Plastic litter seems to be everywhere; it can be seen trapped along fences, scattered in the streets and along beaches and roadsides, where it pollutes water bodies, oceans, land and air. Plastic packaging can be particularly problematic as it accounts for 50% in weight of the total plastic waste in the world and it is often single-use and used “on the go”, making littering and leakage from managed waste more likely. Increasing concern for sustainability compels citizens and enterprises to reduce waste and encourage recycling, reuse and remanufacturing of end-of-life products.

This presentation will discuss work from the “Many Happy Returns” project that examines the sustainable reuse of plastic packaging by identifying the best reuse model for different contexts, exploring the optimum materials, process and technologies for smart reusable plastic packaging systems and developing practices to encourage reuse. This paper follows on from our previous work which was awarded the IChemE Hutchison medal in 2022. Life cycle assessment, material and process technologies and willingness to engage analysis are used to evaluate the sustainability of the proposed reuse model. In particular, analysis of returnable Vytal bowls and cups as reuse containers for use in cafes as take-out packaging, will be presented. The analysed midpoint impact categories have been aggregated into the three main life cycle phases: production, use and End of Life (EoL). Then, they have been used to assess the environmental break-even point (BEP), i.e. the minimum number of uses necessary for a reusable bowls to be preferable than a single-use cardboard container. Reuse is highlighted as a key factor to increase sustainability, reducing carbon footprint and resource consumption. Results evidence all the conditions for reaching a BEP, allowing identification of possible strategies to improve the efficiency of reusable products alongside the willingness of people to obtain an environmental benefit.