Reduce, Reuse, Rethink PACKaging: towards novel fiber-based packaging and reuse schemes uptake

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Packaging waste accounts for 36% of solid waste in EU towns, with plastics being the most widely used material in European food retail, covering 37% of food sold. Recent research shows that important reductions can be achieved by focusing on six plastic applications that are projected to account for 86% of the total reduction achievable by 2040, with multilayer/multimaterial packaging constituting the biggest untapped potential. Consumer awareness of packaging waste and their environmental and social externalities is driving change, while major brands encounter difficulties in self-regulating, as they lack innovative solutions immediately applicable for their most complex packaging. Retailers, as key actors in the food value chain, can choose to lead the transition by promoting a fundamental rethinking of their delivery chains. R3PACK will contribute to Reduce, Reuse, Rethink PACKaging by securing fast and extensive uptake of industrially relevant, cross-sectorial, cost-effective innovative technologies allowing immediate substitution of complex multilayer plastic packaging with high performing fiber-based packaging and economical, industrial and environmental optimisation of reuse schemes demonstrated at large scale and transnationally in 3 EU countries by 2 major retailers, covering the needs of 13 different food product types. R3PACK will moreover offer a clear pathway towards a normalized framework for reusable packaging’s food safety and for reusable packaging’s washing methods, that will serve as reference at EU level. R3PACK will finally offer decision support tools ready to be used by businesses to choose the right packaging solution (between optimized reuse schemes and developed R3PACK paper-based packaging) meeting closely the needs of their products.