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2025 Sustainable Webinar Series: Reusable and refillable packaging

24 April 2025 | 13:00 - 17:10 BST 

Online - €429 + VAT

Reusable packaging is a crucial part of the circular economy for plastics, offering a promising solution to eliminate waste, tackle plastic pollution and provide significant business advantages. Various innovative materials and systems are developed to enhance sustainability in packaging.

Refillable and reusable packaging sales are forecast to increase by a CAGR of 4.5% to 2029 and developing end uses are growing nearly four times faster than mature end uses. The global reusable and refillable packaging market is expected to grow by over $7 billion to 2029.  

This online webinar will provide insights into topics including current trends and developments in refill & reuse packaging, scaling reuse, PPWR, EPR, LCA studies of reuse, reusability by design, implementation of reuse models and take-back systems, case studies, new technologies, innovations and more... 

Who should attend?
This webinar will offer an unrivalled platform and be of interest to a wide range of retailers, brand owners, packaging manufacturers, equipment suppliers, packaging raw material suppliers, PRO's, policy makers, consumer organisations, design agencies logistics or washing providers, software providers, consultants and another organisations with interest in joining future projects on reuse and take back systems.

Speakers & panellists

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AGENDA


13:00 Workshop introduction - Stephen Harrod, Packaging Consultant, Smithers 

13:05 Market trends in reusable and refillable packaging
The new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is a significant step towards reducing packaging waste and promoting reusable solutions12. However, this is just one side of the story. New sustainability innovations need to be both consumer-driven and supported by EU regulations. Rising costs and inflation are significant issues, but decarbonization and packaging waste reduction are now at the forefront. Collaboration is essential to scale up reusable packaging solutions, as current pilots are just scratching the surface of what's possible. 
Katrin Zeiler, Senior Director, Zero Waste World, Customer Innovation and Solutions Europe, CHEP

13:25 Unlocking a reuse revolution - enabling conditions to drive reuse systems to scale

  • Short intro on benefits - environmental + socioeconomic
  • Product categories to start from - e.g. beverages, takeaway, B2B; home & personal care
  • Key drivers of optimised system - shared infrastructure, standardised and pooled packaging, achieving high return rates
  • Policy measures to enable those, including overview of latest work on how to measure reuse

Marta Longhurst, Lead of Field building and Reuse, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

 13:45 The UK Plastics Pact – mainstreaming reuse 

  • Mainstreaming guide to reusable and refillable packaging
  • Collaboration is key – moving to a buy anywhere, return anywhere system
  • Interoperability – how can we create standardised systems

Lowelle Bryan, Senior Plastics Specialist, WRAP

 14:05 Scaling reuse - how the UK’s Refill Coalition designed a successful standardised solution for reuse. 

The Refill Coalition in the UK is a group of retailers, equipment, washing & logistics companies who have collaborated to create a scalable standardised solution for in-store refill and online consumer returnable. Find out:

  • How they did it
  • The challenges of working as a coalition
  • The results of the trial
  • What's needed by industry, government and consumers to drive action on reuse & refill

Catherine Conway, Director & Reuse Lead, GoUnpackaged

 14:25 Reusable packaging consortia; examples in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa & Latin America

  • Reusable Big Bags in the Netherlands - Moonshot project supported by the Dutch 'Versnellingshuis' with broad set of industry players - in line with upcoming PPWR targets for 2026!
  • Reusable Packaging for Large Household Appliances (RePLHA) - project supported by Reusable Packaging Association and focused on Europe - in line with upcoming PPWR targets for 2026!

Willemijn Peeters, Founder and CEO, Searious Business 

 14:45 PPWR and implication for how reuse will work in Europe

  • Overview of reuse provision in PPWR: targets and sectors
  • Related challenges for industry: e.g. definitions, existing/upcoming national provisions
  • Plastics Europe's main asks on reuse

Marta Pietrosanti, Senior Policy Manager, Plastics Europe

15:05 Networking break

15:20 The contribution of EPR scheme to the development of reuse

  • Necessity and relevance of a legal framework for reuse
  • The role of a PRO as coordinator for the development of reuse
  • The work on standardised reusable glass packaging
  • The development of reuse at scale (work programme, concrete steps, objectives)

Emmanuelle Bautista, Director for European and International Affairs, Citeo

15:40 The transition from recyclability to reusability: system and packaging design perspective

  • Packaging design that meets the needs of the value chain
  • Circularity and recyclability remain top priorities for reusable packaging
  • Review of reverse logistic systems for reusable packaging

Irina Ankudinova, Sustainability & Circularity Manager, RECOUP

16:00 Assessing when reuse makes sense: Life Cycle Assessment of Reuse Systems

  • Assessing environmental sustainability of reuse systems is essential to determine the breakeven point - how many times the reusable item must be used to be better than a single-use alternative
  • Consumer willingness to engage must be higher than the environmental break even
  • Examples will be given for reusable takeaway food packaging, catering trays, meat packaging and others

Rachael Rothman, Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering, University of Sheffield

16:20 Key learnings from the Loop platform in France of how to develop strong performance for reuse in retail locations

This will include the number of stores, assortment of SKUs required, replacing single use SKUs, price points and concepts. 

Carlyne Pruvot, Senior Partnerships Manager, Loop France

16:40 Panel discussion:

Fernando Rodriguez-Mata, Director General, New European Reuse Alliance (New ERA)

Marta Longhurst, Lead of Field building and Reuse, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 

Oriol Segarra Pol, CEO & Co-Founder, Bumerang

Laura Griestop, Senior Manager Sustainable Business and Markets, WWF

17:10 Workshop ends

Our 2025 Sustainable Webinar Series

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