This study by GoUnpackaged showed how adopting reusable packaging for just 30% of goods in UK grocery retail delivers substantial financial and environmental rewards, versus single-use packaging. This study is currently being repeated for hospitality/ food service reusables, delivering winter 2026.
Background
Reuse at scale requires an interoperable reuse offer across multiple grocery retailers that is accessible to as many citizens as possible. To date, the focus for reducing the environmental impacts of packaging has been on increasing recyclability and incorporating some recycled materials which, while valuable, fails to drive more upstream Circular Economy behaviours such as reduction and reuse. In line with the waste hierarchy, elimination, reduction, and reuse must be prioritised over recycling.
To achieve 30% reuse, the UK needs to develop transportation logistics and sortation, washing and filling infrastructure – with commercially-driven owners across the whole value chain - none of which currently exists at the necessary scale.
In addition to achieving the desired environmental outcomes of reduced virgin resource consumption, emissions, and waste, we must also design reuse systems that run as close to cost parity as possible to single-use systems to avoid increasing the cost burden on citizens.
The approach
Developed with input from an expert Advisory Panel (made up of Amcor (was Berry Global), Biffa, CHEP, DEFRA, Ecosurety, Innovate UK, Ocado Retail, Reath, Suez, Tesco, WRAP, and WWF), the research spanned multiple product categories - from coffee to ready meals to shower gel - and various reuse scenarios to provide an objective and evidence-based picture of the potential impacts of reuse.
This research was undertaken to show feasible ways to scale reuse by taking a data-driven view of:
- The cost of the infrastructure changes needed
- The potential owners of different elements of that change
- The ultimate benefits that can be derived by these owners - and wider society - to more than compensate the investment involved.
The results
Key results show that moving to just 30% reuse delivers:
- A £136m annual saving for producers in Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) costs, for the products in scope.
- A £314m - £577m annual saving in overall system costs vs. single-use, equal to a 12-22% saving
- A 95% reduction in CO2e emissions, for the products in scope, more than 800,000 tonnes saved, equal to the emissions of flying a million people from London to New York and back[1]
- 95% reduction in packaging materials and waste, for the products in scope, saving more than 300,000 tonnes of packaging waste per year - equivalent to the weight of 1,400 Boeing 747 planes[2]
- 13,000 net new jobs[3]
The 30% reuse target could be achieved by converting just 18 priority categories, using 30 standardised packaging types.
The research accounts for the full costs of enabling the transition - showing that the long-term savings and sustainability gains significantly outweigh the investment required. Reusable packaging, or reuse, is a key part of the solution.
What’s next?
The report contains key recommendations for industry and government to work together to co-design a Transition plan to reach 30% reuse by 2035, coordinating retailers, supply chain logistics, waste management and Local Authorities.
GoUnpackaged is now repeating similar research for hospitality/food service reusables delivering winter 2026.
The focus will be on UK Closed Loop Environments, which represent workplaces, venues, tourist attractions and outdoor events, and is supported by Compass Group, Live Nation/ Festival Republic, Wembley Stadium, TOMRA, Therme Manchester, CHEP, Suez, Beyondly, DEFRA, WRAP & UKRI.
The results of the Food Service modelling research will be aggregated with the results of the previous Grocery Retail research findings to create an even more detailed picture of the infrastructure required to deliver a high level of reuse in the UK.
[1] CO2 figures based on data from the International Civil Aviation Organization https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/Carbonoffset/Pages/default.aspx
[2] Based on weight of heaviest unoccupied Boeing 747 (747-8) as 211.9 tonnes https://www.airlines-inform.com/commercial-aircraft/boeing-747-8.html
[3] Using a modelling framework created by ReLondon https://relondon.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-circular-economy-at-work_jobs-and-skills-for-Londons-low-carbon-future.pdf