Climate 100

Why reusable plastics can’t fix the climate crisis

Your refillable water bottle isn’t much of a ‘sustainable choice’ if you keep accidentally leaving it at home, writes Thomas Kormendi. That’s why, with plastic waste set to triple by 2060, single-use cartons made from paperboard may be the solution the planet is looking for

Sunday 25 August 2024 14:26 BST

Reusable packaging is not a cure-all to fixing the plastic emissions problem (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

If you’re anything like me, you probably have very good intentions when it comes to packaging. You might bring your tote bag to the supermarket or carry a metal water bottle to work. You may even bring your reusable coffee cup to your local cafe and ask them to fill it up for a discount. You’re far from alone: across the UK, US, and Australia, 75 per cent of people make at least some effort to limit their reliance on single-use plastics.

This is for good reason. At current trends, plastic waste is set to almost triple by 2060. And since 36 per cent of all plastics produced are used in packaging, making better packaging choices has the potential to deliver a real impact.

But then come the inevitable pitfalls. What to do when I’ve left my bottle at home? I can buy a new one and add to the pile of corporate freebies already clogging up my kitchen cupboard. More likely I’ll opt for the single-use plastic bottle and promise to recycle it. Sadly, I know this has little bearing on the overall emissions pumped out from producing that bottle in the first place.

This isn’t just a trivial inconvenience to me, but a major barrier to how we all cut down on plastics and the emissions associated with them. A recent report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) has called for a “fundamentally new approach” to reusable packaging for food, drink, and personal hygiene products.

This new approach involves multiple businesses sharing standardised, reusable packaging that can be cleaned and distributed centrally. So I can pick up a glass bottle at the cafe and return it at a restaurant over lunch and it ends up back in the same system.

However, this may not be the most effective solution for reducing emissions. While the EMF estimates that over a thousand uses, reusable bottles will result in 69 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a thousand single-use plastic bottles, that is less impactful than swapping out single-use plastic for single-use cartons. A 2020 study found that for one litre of milk, single-use cartons made from paperboard contribute 82 per cent fewer emissions than plastic bottles.

This is only a narrow comparison, but it shows how reusable packaging is not a cure-all to fixing the plastic emissions problem. Cartons may not be perfect (they do currently contain a small amount of plastic as a protective barrier) but they contribute far fewer emissions than plastic bottles and are mostly made from wood fibres: a renewable resource that can support the planting and maintaining of forests.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure required for widespread uptake of reusables presents a serious challenge, particularly in the developing world where an increasing amount of plastic waste is generated. In 2022, India tried to outright ban some single-use plastic items, but the volume of plastic waste has since gone up – in part due to a lack of viable alternatives.

Given the extent and urgency of the plastic crisis, we need to support solutions that tap into trends in consumer behaviour and can be readily scaled up. While not yet as widespread in the UK, in the EU cartons account for 75 per cent of packaging for milk and 59 per cent for juice. Now there is evidence they can be used for home and personal care goods as well. In a 2023 study commissioned by Elopak, over half of shoppers in the UK and Germany said they would be “happy” to buy products like laundry detergent and hand soap in cartons.

Companies must play their part in incentivising this change in consumer behaviour. Sainsbury’s in the UK and Orkla in Scandinavia are already doing so, offering pre-fill laundry products in cartons since 2023 and 2021 respectively, inviting customers to top up a permanent dispenser at home rather than shopping each time for a new plastic container. This is a highly appealing proposition: according to Elopak’s study, 74 per cent of UK shoppers would happily co-opt this model.

Truly it is only through convention and an accident of marketing that we are taught soap or surface cleaner have to come in a plastic bottle at all. Breaking our society’s plastic addiction means questioning where we even need it in the first place.

This is not to say I’ll be throwing out my collection of reusable water bottles – far from it. But when I find myself needing a sweet drink at the airport, or my wife texts to say that we’ve run out of washing-up liquid, it would be nice to not pick up yet another plastic bottle and instead have a low-carbon carton conveniently on the shelves.

The one thing we can’t afford to do is nothing. Around the world, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, with the vast majority ending up in landfills. Replacing these with either cartons or reusable packaging would deliver a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But, via cartons especially, we can more easily create a world where plastic bottles become a novelty in our shops and homes.