With the threat of climate change looming on the horizon and the excessive amount of waste that humans produce, more consumers and companies alike are pushing towards reusable packaging. Consumers will choose reusable packaging over the competing products as this helps them feel as if they are making a change. At the same time, creating reusable packaging improves your brand’s reputation as it shows you care about the planet and our future.
Offer a Refill or Return Program
If you have physical stores, consider offering a refill program on products that come in bottles, jars, or similar containers. Cosmetics manufacturers, for example, could refill tubes of lip gloss. Hand soap companies could refill soap dispensers.
You can also offer a sanitize-and-swap option, such as the traditional milk bottles or the giant jugs of bottled water used by many companies. With this model, you charge a small deposit for the container and discount it off future purposes if consumers bring in their empty container. This can even work with some delivered products, but remember to factor in the environmental impact of shipping.
Include Inspiration on the Packaging
Merely designing your packaging to be reusable is not necessarily enough. You also need to show consumers the ways that they can reuse it, so they are aware of this option. For example, if you sell drinks in glass jars, include a picture on the packaging of an empty jar being used as a vase. This way, consumers can see the future potential of the packaging. Additionally, if they have inspiration for reusing the packaging, they are more likely to do so. After all, they do not have to start from scratch.
Encourage Sharing the Reuse With a Hashtag
You can even encourage reuse, provide inspiration, and use social media marketing at the same time with a hashtag. Create a hashtag and encourage consumers to reuse the containers then share pictures of them doing so on social media. The goal is for the hashtag to be filled with multiple people using your packaging creatively. In the case of glass jars, you will hope to see people reusing them as cups, vases, other decorative items, and even Tupperware replacements.
Get Creative
One of the simplest ways to encourage recycling is to create product packaging that can be reused as a gift box in the future. This will help consumers to keep the packaging for the future, and it will advertise your brand, as the gift box will have it on it.
You should also take the opportunity to show off your creativity. There are plenty of innovative ways to make your packaging reusable, and you should not hesitate to use other products as inspiration. Some products, for example, will come in biodegradable packaging and include a seed in it. The packaging then encourages consumers to plant the box and grow a tree or other plant.
Remember that if you cannot make your product packaging fully reusable, you can still minimize your impact on the planet by maximizing the recycled and recyclable content.
