Impactcase Mission Reuse

Away with the throwaway culture

Worldwide, we produce more than 400 million tonnes of plastic a year. More than a third of this goes for packaging, which we often throw away immediately after use. This throwaway mentality is deeply ingrained in our society. According to Enviu, the Fair Resource Foundation and Natuur & Milieu, something needs to change in order to overcome the problem. Together, they launched the Mission Reuse programme in 2020, with a clear mission to make reusable products the norm in everyday life. The DOEN Foundation has supported Mission Reuse from the start.

Working together on reuse

What does it take to change a persistent habit? To investigate this, Mission Reuse is testing reuse in various locations with different target groups such as offices, sports clubs and public transport. The spring of 2024 saw the start of a pilot project in Rotterdam together with Dutch Railways, the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Province of South Holland, among others. For three months, more than 30 partners in the hospitality industry in and around Rotterdam Central Station took part in an experiment with a collective return system for reusable cups. The key insights were:

• Cooperation and the same approach by hospitality providers is crucial in convincing consumers.
• A universal return infrastructure is not only technically feasible, but also appears to work well in practice.
• Reuse skyrockets when it is the default option.

Moving in the same direction

So good cooperation between the different parties is essential for successfully eliminating single-use packaging. There's a long way to go and the will is certainly there, but which is the right path?

Since 2023, Mission Reuse has been holding the Reusable Packaging Fair together with the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV), Verpact and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, with the aim of sharing knowledge, connecting people and inspiring each other. It brings together policy makers, innovative start-ups and people from the business community. After years of lobbying for more focus on reuse and the importance of the circular economy, the change in mentality is clearly noticeable during the Fair. The question is no longer whether we will switch to reusable packaging, but how.

A cinema takes the plunge

Can we finally consign the throwaway economy to the rubbish bin? According to Enviu, this will only be possible if everyone joins in: the government must adapt laws and regulations, companies must change their systems and services, and consumers must also be willing to go the extra mile. But it is certainly possible,as the Pathé cinema chain has shown. With the help of Mission Reuse, Pathé tested a sustainable reuse system in a successful pilot project at three of its branches. This saved the cinema chain some 45,000 disposable cups and 25,000 lids in three months. Pathé decided to take the plunge and introduced reusable cups in all 30 cinemas during the Christmas period in 2023, saving them an estimated 1.8 million disposable cups per year. They are sharing the knowledge they have acquired with other organisations, so that they too can take a step towards a reuse system.

Packaging with a future

Mission Reuse is in full swing and is taking a broad approach to tackling the challenge of reusing packaging. Besides initiating, encouraging and scaling up innovative solutions (now including e-commerce and glass), recycling is now on the political agenda both nationally and internationally. Mission Reuse connects partners and shares best practices and know-how, so that more and more people can see that this is the future.