A new white paper has highlighted the benefits of reuse culture but warned of barriers to progress.

Packaging News
By PN Staff 
28 November 2022

Published by BRITA UK, Unwrapping Reuse Culture claims that there are environmental and economic benefits of prioritising reuse and said that “recycling should be the last port of call rather than the first”.

It called for government intervention and added that businesses should incorporate reuse into models.

BRITA is the manufacturer of water filter jugs.

David Hall, managing director of BRITA UK said: “The world faces a deepening environmental crisis, and to tackle it we need urgent and radical action. Having convened a group of leading experts there must be a refocus on reuse, as it not only offers environmental benefits, but presents economic opportunities too.

“We need to move away from producing items such as single use plastic bottles, and towards products that can be reused over and over again. We have the potential to take billions of excess waste out of the system every year, but to do that we need reuse to be embedded in businesses, education and policy.”

Barry Sheerman MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainable Resource said: “If we’re serious about climate change and global warming then reuse is one of the most important concepts we must consider. By putting in place sustainable practices like reuse, businesses can be more efficient.”

Natalie Fee, founder of environmental NGO City to Sea added: “We can’t solve the plastic pollution problem without a rapid and revolutionary approach to reusable and refillable packaging. There are some sources of plastic pollution we could simply ban, France for example has recently banned plastic packaging on some fruit and vegetables, but there are many areas, such as the food-to-go sector, where we need to creatively introduce and normalise reusable packaging as an alternative to polluting single-use plastics.”