Towards closing the implementation gap: an analysis of decision making in reusable packaging systems
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Packaging plays a vital role in containing and safely distributing goods globally. However, the predominance of single-use packaging in the current ‘take-make-dispose’ economic paradigm has led to significant environmental challenges, including waste generation, pollution, and unsustainable resource extraction. Reusable packaging is proposed as a solution that can potentially enhance material circularity while offering positive economic performance. However, it requires transitioning to collaborative Circular Business Models (CBMs), along with restructuring supply chains. This systemic change involves a trade-off between required adjustments, environmental benefits, and costs, making industry and business hesitant due to unclear benefits and high initial expenses. Also, these transformations are unique to each business model or configuration of reusable packaging systems (RPS), as are their economic and environmental performances. Consequently, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and CBM literature on reuse has called for holistic approaches to this complex socio-technical system that can effectively support decision-making toward more feasible and sustainable pathways. Although literature exists on influential factors to reuse CBMs, there is still a need of seeing how these can play a role in practice. This study adopts a system perspective to analyse the real-world involvement and influence of factors within value chain actors’ decision-making processes, aiming to identify pathways for achieving life cycle environmental and economic success in reuse. A mixed methods approach is used, involving semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, followed by a focus group with industry experts. Hence, by means of a co-creation process, the data is analysed based on real-world applications of RPS, undercovering optimal decision-making configurations Furthermore, stakeholders’ influence and involvement across the reusable packaging life cycle are traced. As a result, this exploration ; aims to set the foundation for developing an LCA-based decision-support tool, so practitioners (e.g., researchers and consultants) can constructively help industry stakeholders closing the implementation gap of reusable.
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7126502728
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