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In the UK alone, households generate around 5.4 million tonnes of paper and cardboard packaging waste every year (Statista (2021). While 71% of that is recycled, that still leaves roughly 1.5 million tonnes being sent to landfill or incinerated.
It’s clear we’ve become very focused on making packaging recyclable, but is that really enough? Recycling still uses a lot of energy and resources. If we want to move closer to a circular economy, we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
At Reuseabox, we think there’s a better way. Instead of immediately reaching for something new, we believe the most sustainable option might already be in your warehouse. That’s why we’re on a mission to get businesses reusing cardboard boxes, rather than sending them straight to the recycling pile. Or worse, the bin.
Every year, millions of perfectly good boxes are discarded after just one use. We work with manufacturers, retailers and logistics companies to rescue these high-quality boxes before they’re wasted. Once rescued, we help get them into the hands of other businesses that can reuse them. It’s a simple solution, but a powerful one.
Reusing instead of recycling means we don’t need to remake the same box all over again. That reduces the demand for virgin materials, lowers carbon emissions, and helps protect forests. It just makes sense - why create more boxes when there are already so many out there that could be used again?
Back in 2019, one of the UK’s biggest distribution networks asked us to help them explore the impact of reuse. We teamed up with the University of Lincoln and Eco3 Design, and the results were eye-opening. For every tonne of cardboard reused instead of recycled, we save:
- 3.5 trees
- 1.1 tonnes of CO₂
- Over 16,000 kWh of energy
- More than 200,000 litres of water
That same business has now sent us over a million boxes for reuse. And because we track the environmental savings, they use the data to show real reductions in their Scope 3 emissions. Partnerships like these help us shift the conversation from simply recycling to reusing, and rethinking packaging altogether.
Looking ahead, we’re planning to pilot new recovery systems that can support wider industry change. Our goal? A future where packaging waste is no longer part of the process.
So, as we mark Circular Economy Week, we’re asking businesses to think again about their packaging. Reuse might not sound revolutionary, but it could just be the change we need.