Designing reusable packaging: tool development, validation, and implications

With increasing emphasis on the environmental impact of product-packaging combinations comes a growing appreciation for systemic improvements in the way packaging acts within supply chains. One of the innovation directions at the centre of attention is reusable and refillable packaging. In various forms, these are being researched for their potential to act as a packaging concept, and developed as a market-ready alternative to one-way or single-use packaging. Both in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan and packaging strategies developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, reusable packaging is adopted as a valuable scenario. In this research, we set out to develop a decision support tool that can assist in developing product-packaging combinations for reuse/refill scenarios. The development of the tool is based on a designerly approach, combining literature research and interviews with industry stakeholders applying reusable packaging concepts in their product marketing, or considering to do so. Complexities in the development and application of the tool do not only come from specific product-packaging combinations, but also from the system in which these interact: retail, use, reverse logistics, and repurposing require an overhaul of their impact. The developed tool is tested by means of a multi-concept analysis, and a reflection. Eight student groups are invited to design reusable/refillable packaging concepts, for a product of their choice. Analysing the designs with the tool provides insights into the decision-making process, and a set of potential redesign considerations. With this, we assess the value of the designed concepts and the benefits of the tool for decision-making processes when developing reusable packaging concepts. The latter point is valuable for comparison to other packaging decision-making tools, and to be able to make improvements. In follow-up research, we set out to apply the decision support tool for industry-based design processes, to understand its usability for packaging designers.