Investigation into the drivers and barriers affecting refillable packaging

Over the past 40 years considerable efforts have been made to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging by focusing on issues such as light-weighting and material selection. However, although these redesign approaches are commendable and should be encouraged, they are not having a radical effect on reducing the environmental impact of packaging or addressing the broader issues of sustainability. Refillable packaging systems may provide part of the solution to this problem, however in the past attempts to extend the use of refillables beyond a few traditional areas have met with little success (Darlow, 2003). In recognition of this a collaborative research project - ‘Refillable packaging systems’, between Loughborough University, The Boots Company and DEFRA set out to investigate amongst other things, the barriers and drivers found to influence the adoption and success of refillable packaging. This paper reports on those findings.