Milk and soft drinks are two commodities that 30 or so years ago came in returnable containers. As supermarket chains began to dominate the market and squeeze out local corner stores, our products started to come from larger scale distribution systems which have tended to favour 'convenient' single use, throwaway packaging.

Longer distances and bigger warehouses need packaging that protects and preserves our products for greater periods of time. So it's no surprise that nearly one third of municipal solid waste is packaging. But it's not all post-consumer packaging -- the stuff we end up with at home. About half of our packaging waste is transport packaging -- the crates, pallets, stretchwrap, polystyrene, and cardboard boxes that are used to transport goods between their point of origin (such as a production facility or farm) and their destination (manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer).

CARDBOARD BOXES ARE BIG BUSINESS
In the US, corrugated cardboard boxes are used to carry over 90 percent of goods -- especially food and beverages. In 1990, 25 billion boxes were made -- that's 100 for every person. Cardboard boxes account for about 24 million tonnes of waste, or at least 10 per cent of the municipal waste stream. About the same amount is recycled, if the market price is right. In Australia, the picture is similar. Packaging is big business -- much bigger than any of the industries it serves -- with a formidable ability to shape waste legislation.

Corrugated boxes are also part of the waste-stream of small business, retail outlets, factories and warehouses throughout Australia. Should business consider the costs of buying and managing single use packaging waste as a necessary overhead?

A CASE IN NEED Smash repairers in Wollongong have identified car parts packaging as a substantial waste problem. Local industry representatives suggest that much of the packaging could be reused by manufacturers if a return system could be introduced.

EXTENDING PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
Extending Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is one way to force packaging designers to consider the costs of handling containers at their 'end of life'. One option they have is to design reusable containers. Reusable packaging can also play a role in 'reversing logistics' -- carrying used products back from consumers and retailers for reuse, remanufacture, upgrading or recycling.

REUSABLE TRANSPORT PACKAGING
A company that uses corrugated cardboard boxes once can reduce the quantity of material needed for one million shipments by 70.5 percent if it uses five trip corrugated boxes; and by 98 percent if it switches from single use boxes to plastic crates which can be reused 250 times*. The cost of a single use container is 95 per cent less than that of a reusable one. However, if the plastic container is used 250 times it then costs 91 percent less. (* note this analysis does not include the energy and material used for transport and waste disposal.)

We still see reusable plastic crates for milk and bread, and between manufacturing assembly lines. From these resilient examples, we can glean the conditions which favour reusables: short distances; frequent deliveries; company-owned vehicles; and industry commitment. And of course, we have to design the right package for the job -- see Table 1. EPR policies can also favour reusables, yielding the benefits outlined in Table 2.

TABLE 1 What is good reusable packaging design Able to be stacked, collapsed, folded into a small volume and stored when not in use; Durable and washable. Lightweight and strong. Easy and quick to fill and empty, assemble and disassemble; Tamper proof to avoid contamination; and Able to attach to pallets for easy lifting and handling.

TABLE 2 Benefits of reusable containers Less materials used and lower costs over time; Less product damage (if well designed); Better use of vehicle and warehouse space (as durable containers can stack higher); Reduced labour costs (if designed for unpacking); Can double as display stands in the shop; and No waste handling, storage and disposal costs.

TABLE 3 Examples of reusables Refillable bulk containers for liquids, with inlets and outlets for filling, emptying and cleaning. Heavy duty, refillable bulk bags which fold flat when empty and hang in wire frames during filling. Bags which inflate to fill the space between contents and outer container to prevent product damage. The bags deflate when not in use and can be used for products in all shapes and sizes. Foldable plastic crates.

In some instances, local scale reuse systems are spontaneously emerging. Used containers such as wire-bound wooden crates, waxed corrugated cardboard boxes, plastic strawberry baskets and polystyrene foam are reclaimed by small business in the US, Germany and Australia and sold or leased to small scale growers for reuse. In other cases, companies have overcome some of the barriers to reuse (see Table 4), and invested in reusables -- as the following case studies show.

 Case study 1: Ban the box
A personal care company operating in Australia replaced single-use cardboard cartons with reusable plastic bulk bins. The move saves 200,000 cartons every year. Freight costs have decreased by 30 percent; and the new bins stack to double the height in the warehouse -- avoiding a costly relocation.

 Case study 2: Ban the foam
Golden Glow, a mail order health care company based in Queensland, has for the past five years replaced polystrene foam fill with popcorn to protect its products when mailing out.

 Case study 3: Payback within a year
A fast food outlet in the US switched from using corrugated cardboard boxes to reusable plastic totes for shipping meat patties and dressing to 84 stores. They recovered the initial costs of the totes within 11 months.

 Case study 4: Going loopy
Fuji Xerox, a manufacturer of photocopiers, printers, faxes, software and electronic products, ditched a system that used thousands of different sized one way containers and replaced it with a worldwide system based on nine standard reusable package sizes. It's called open loop reuse and it has saved the company between $2 and $5 million annually. The standard containers can be emptied and reused onsite and it's not necessary to take them back. Third parties collect, sort and resell empty containers as needed, which creates opportunities for small business.

 Case study 5: A case of beer
A Canadian beer brewer and wholesaler/retailer has been delivering beer in reusable bottles for decades. The company also takes back empty bottles in reusable crates. A deposit of 10 cents per bottle is refunded when customers take empties back to the store. Empties are sorted into 15 standard bottle types in-store. The company says in-store sorting is less energy intensive than kerbside pick-up and minimises broken glass.

A VISION Dutch industry and government have agreed that no packaging is to go to landfill by 2000. Bans have been placed on free shopping bags, the advertising of beverages in non-refillable bottles and chlorine bleached paper beverage cartons.

When full bottles are dropped off at the store, empties are picked up in 40-trip plastic containers and taken back to the brewery. This cycle captures 98.5 percent of 1.8 billion bottles. Even bottle tops, aluminium cans and plastics are now being recycled. The company claims the system is self-sustaining and requires no government subsidies. Waste disposal costs have fallen by almost 90 percent to $130,000 in just two years, and only a quarter of the company's retail outlets have a waste bin.

WHAT CAN I DO?
Support bulk buying. Contact Alfalfa House ph: 02 9519 3374 for details.
Take your packaging back to the store. You might invite your friends -- make it a 'critical mass'. Ask the store to provide you with a reuse and recycling bin.
Write to packaging producers.
Write to the Minister for the Environment and ask her why EPR did not feature in the recent Dairy Industry Waste Reduction Plan (which had a zero percent target for refillable milk bottles).
Contact Friends Of the Earth, Sydney for letter ideas ph: 02 9283 2004 fax: 02 9283 2005, or download sample letters soon to appear on this website.

FURTHER READING
Jones Jack, 'Cost and material savings from reusable transport packaging', CONFERENCE PAPER presented at Ecoredesign Seminar, Sydney, August 1997. Contact 3R Packaging Services COMPANY. ph: 02 4392 3347
Saphire, 'Delivering the goods. Benefits of reusable shipping containers'. REPORT. Contact Inform, 120 Wall ST New York, NY 1005-4001 USA fax: 212 361 2412 or e-mail: inform@igc.apc.org
Hewlett Packard, 'Guidelines for environmentally responsible packaging'. PAPER. Contact: www.corp.hp.com/publish/talkpkg/enviro/environm.htm

TABLE 4	!
Barriers to reusing	Solutions and opportunities
Resistance to change. This is especially the case for small business with limited purchasing power to influence contracts with suppliers. Reusable containers cost more to buy than single use containers (again a barrier for small business), can be difficult to keep track of, may require stacking and handling equipment and take up storage space when not in use. It costs money to return flattened packages to points of origin. Life cycle impacts. If heavier, reusables can cost more to carry and generate more greenhouse gases.	EPR, government support, bulk purchasing schemes and pilot programs. Lease or hire/purchase agreements. It's essential to know your payback period. Software systems for tracking reusables are available. Containers need to be labelled with a universal reuse symbol and return details. Some companies may suit 'open loop' reuse where a package does not need to go back to its previous destination for refilling (see the case study). Open loop reuse is supported by packaging waste exchanges. Use reverse logistics, i.e. deliver and use the return journey to take back. Design packages to stack and collapse. Investigate. Do case by case lifecycle comparisons between reuse and single use systems. Small business will need assistance to find and use these resources.