Somewhere on the list of sustainability best practices is reusable packaging. In our throwaway society, which is oriented toward convenience and consumption, reusability often is far down the list of potential packaging options. In many cases, however, it might be an excellent option.

For instance, in Canada, the brewing industry maintains a closed-loop return system that keeps beer containers moving from the brewer to the customer and back. Some beer bottles known as “common footprint bottles” are used up to 15 times before they are crushed and melted for use in new bottles.

These footprint bottles account for 73 percent of the packaged Canadian beer market, and with a highly efficient recovery system, 97 percent of the bottles sold are returned by customers for reuse. This environmentally friendly system makes sense for Canada and helps keep retail beer prices reasonable there. It would probably be regionally appropriate in several areas of the U.S., too.
Designing a package for reuse enables it to be refilled or reused multiple times by the consumer, retailer or producer. Reusable packaging should be designed to be safe and cost-effective, while being able to withstand long-distance shipping necessary to complete the cradle-to-cradle cycle.

Reusing a package or packaging material also increases the material's useful life. This is an environmentally positive design strategy because you gain increased return for the original processing input. It can also lead to a decreased demand for new materials, which conserves resources, cuts processing energy requirements and reduces pollution—also known as source reduction.

Often, it's the package's application that helps determine whether reuse is an option. For instance, when dealing with food packaging, in many cases reusability is not an option and should be carefully analyzed. The best designs also optimize void spaces, providing the best cube utilization possible.

Over-designing is a potential pitfall. In reality, if the consumer does not want or need the reusable package, then the added durability of the package is wasted.

When the package is designed with the intent that retailers or producers will reuse it, consumers must have an incentive to return the package, and recovery systems need to be in place to facilitate collection. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the infrastructure and logistical needs of designing a packaging system based on reuse. Many companies compare the environmental benefits of reusable packaging with those of one-way packaging. For instance, handling, shipping and cleaning of reusable packaging may have equal or greater impact than a package designed for one-time use.

At some point, even a well-designed and utilized reusable package will reach the end of its usefulness. Therefore, it is necessary to think about material selections and how the packaging material can be recovered in end-of-life scenarios.