Kickstart: Rethinking packaging

Reusable water bottles are everywhere these days, but those are personal items that are purchased and reused by one person (or one family).

While there are individual attempts to promote reusable packaging, such as East Coast grocery store chain Giant Food's collaboration with Loop, getting to a large-scale adoption of reusable packaging will take a lot more collaboration throughout the supply chain than exists currently in most regions, although recent studies say it's possible and can save money while reducing the carbon footprint of packaging.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation says its research shows a complete rethinking of packaging — what it terms a "system change" — could lead to about 40 percent of packaging as reusable, with a 95 percent return rate. That would allow one package to be reused around 15 times, our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes. At the same time, total packaging costs could drop as much as 10 percent.

But not everyone agrees that it's feasible at this time.

Earlier this year, consultants with McKinsey & Co. looked at the possibility of reusable packaging in two markets: e-commerce and food takeout. It found that the higher initial costs of reusable packaging would require items to be used at least 20 times to break even.

A new Dutch study on coffee capsules (think Keurig and Nespresso) says that compostable plastic pods are the most sustainable choice. The study from Amsterdam's Wageningen University & Research using the Material Circularity Indicator measurement developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, even found compostable capsules are completely circular.

The problem is, most European countries — with Italy as a major exception — don't accept compostable pods in the organic waste system for municipal composting, Beatriz Santos from our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

"This needs to change, and the only way for this to happen is by embracing the composters and their legitimate concern of non-compostable coffee capsules contaminating their waste streams," Hasso von Pogrell, managing director of European Bioplastics, said.

Just how many single-serve PET liquor bottles does your town sell?

People in Connecticut now know thanks to a state law requiring a 5-cent surcharge on each small bottle — or nip as they're called there — with the nickel going back to local communities to help support environmental programs.

Connecticut's "nip surcharge" began in October 2021 and between then and September 2023, the state paid out nearly $9 million to cities and towns. Between April 1 and Sept. 30 this year, Connecticut sold 47.3 million nips, resulting in more than $2.3 million collected, according to NBC Connecticut. (You can also find raw data from the state here.) It may not be a surprise that a college town, New Haven, is the state's largest seller of nips.

The single-serve liquor bottles have been an issue elsewhere in the U.S. The small containers often end up in trash rather than recycling bins and are small enough to slip into storm drain systems where they end up in rivers and other waterways.

Maine has been collecting 5 cents on mini bottles since 2015.