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

包装废物占欧盟城镇固体废物的36%，塑料是欧洲食品零售中最广泛使用的材料，覆盖了37%的食品销售。最近的研究表明，通过关注六种塑料应用，可以实现重要的减排，预计到2040年，这六种塑料应用将占到可实现的减排总量的86%，其中多层/多材料包装具有最大的未开发潜力。消费者对包装废弃物及其环境和社会外部性的认识正在推动变革，而主要品牌在自我调节方面遇到困难，因为它们缺乏立即适用于其最复杂包装的创新解决方案。零售商作为食品价值链中的关键角色，可以选择通过推动对其配送链的根本性反思来引领转型。R3PACK将通过确保快速和广泛地采用工业相关的、跨部门的、具有成本效益的创新技术，使复杂的多层塑料包装立即被高性能纤维包装替代，并在3个欧盟国家的2个主要零售商大规模和跨国地展示了经济、工业和环境优化的再利用方案，从而有助于减少、再利用和重新思考包装。涵盖13种不同食品类型的需求。此外，R3PACK还将为可重复使用包装的食品安全和可重复使用包装的洗涤方法的规范化框架提供明确的途径，这将作为欧盟层面的参考。R3PACK最终将提供决策支持工具，供企业选择合适的包装解决方案（在优化的重用方案和开发的R3PACK纸质包装之间），以满足其产品的需求。

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.