Beyond the Plastic Bag: Sparking a Seachange for Reuse

Why does the single-use plastic retail bag need reinventing?

 It’s estimated that we use 100 billion plastic bags per year in the U.S. alone and fewer than 10 percent of these are recycled. While the convenience of the single-use plastic retail bag can’t be disputed, the negative impact — considering its short use (12 minutes, on average) and long estimated lifespan — have led to rising customer concern, advocacy campaigns and regulatory bans and fees. This is a challenge that is top-of-mind for communities and customers concerned about the impacts of singleuse plastics on our environment and oceans, as well as for brands seeking more sustainable solutions. Current alternatives can be costly and inconvenient, often trading one environmental issue for another. We need to move away from our current linear takemake-waste economic system and “disposable” culture, and toward a more circular economy in which materials are shared and re-used.

How do we approach eliminating the single-use plastic bag?

Customers today want convenience in getting their goods from store to final destination, and community and individual needs are not uniform. A model that works well in a suburban area where the majority of customers use a car is very different from a model that works for someone based in an urban area who must carry purchases on foot or on public transportation. We need to think about how, where and when consumers shop, ensuring that solutions are convenient, accessible and inclusive.

What role do retailers play in advancing reuse?

In this report, we zoom in on the role of reusable bags in addressing plastic waste. If we want both adoption and lasting change, we need to develop reusable bag systems that seamlessly integrate with retail operations and are easy to use for consumers and businesses alike. Reusable bag models come in different shapes and sizes to meet varied contexts and needs across retail. Some models put the onus on individuals to bring their own reusable bags in store, other models provide a service so that customers can “borrow” or rent reusable bags at a retailer’s store in case they forget to bring their own. This report focuses on the latter “reusable service” model in which customers are “borrowing” a bag onsite, reusing it before eventually returning it at the same or different retailer’s store to be washed, redistributed and reused by additional customers. Today, retail is undergoing seismic shifts, with growing consumer demand for sustainable solutions, increasing regulation to mitigate single-use plastic waste, and evolving technologies and digitization that enhance the customer experience. This rapidly changing retail landscape spurs opportunities for innovation.

Retailers play a critical role in increasing the visibility and accessibility of innovative sustainable solutions to the public, offering fertile testing grounds for new reuse solutions. At Closed Loop Partners, we use the framework of “Innovate, Test & Scale” in our partnerships with retailers, knowing there is value in iteration, especially when introducing sustainable innovations that seek to address existing social and environmental challenges. Mitigating any unforeseen consequences is a critical part of this work to ensure that we’re not replacing one problem with another. That’s why this report explores how retailers are collaborating with each other to collectively iterate, pilot and hone sustainable solutions and build greater circularity into their supply chains. Building a more sustainable future for the retail industry won’t happen overnight, but with their growing focus on waste challenges, retailers are helping to accelerate experimentation and learnings across different contexts in the United States. We learn more with every different test and iteration, benefitting from additional data points and pressure testing of new systems. Ultimately, this path enables us to accelerate the catalytic change necessary to transition to a more sustainable retail system.

What do we already know about reuse?

The overall impact of reuse models depends on our willingness to collaborate across all aspects of the system — forging innovative new partnerships, advancing sustainability initiatives and developing new products and ways of collectively operating. In 2020, Closed Loop Partners’ NextGen Consortium, in partnership with Starbucks and McDonald’s, ran several reusable cup pilots, publishing an open source resource — Bringing Reusable Packaging Systems to Life — that encourages the collaboration and the growth of reuse models.

What must retailers consider when implementing reusable bag services?

 When retailers begin testing and implementing reusable bag services, the fundamental journey of the packaging starts to look quite different, and retailers need to look for opportunities to optimize the experience every step of the way. THE REUSE JOURNEY KEY REUSE INSIGHTS Our Beyond the Bag Pilots unearthed key insights across the customer journey and behind the scenes — the reverse logistics and management — to determine what helps the long term social, environmental and financial viability of reuse models.

TLPPACKAGING FOR SHOPPING BAGS