Packaging made from reusable plastic and flat-rate reusable quotas for packaging in online retail, as envisaged in the draft EU Packaging Regulation, are DS Smith believes that this is the wrong approach to reducing packaging wasteThe aim is to promote a functioning circular economy and ultimately improve the overall ecology. In many areas of application, corrugated board packaging solutions are the ecologically and economically better alternative.

Reusable plastic packaging is often produced from fossil raw materials, which is very material and energy intensive. In comparison to corrugated cardboard packaging, the recycling rate of which in Germany is in an effectively established circulation system is among the highest of all packaging materials, additional effort for provision, cleaning and return of the reusable boxes with not inconsiderable additional costs in logistics and the negative effects of more lorries on the roads and therefore on the overall ecology. In addition to the currently comparatively low recycling rates of plastic and the aforementioned ecological disadvantages, reusable plastic also results in higher costs for shippers and consumers.

In contrast to plastic packaging, corrugated cardboard is made entirely from the renewable raw material wood from sustainable forestry and can be recycled more than 20 times. What's more, the proportion of recycled paper in corrugated board packaging is already around 80 per cent, the company argues. is in favour of an exemption from paper-based packaging for reusable solutions in online retail and for large household appliances. A blanket introduction of reusable packaging quotas, as envisaged in the PPWR draft, would not be economically or ecologically beneficial in many applications. DS Smith is therefore calling for improvements in the sense of a fact-based consideration of the life cycle assessment of a packaging solution for each applicationto ensure a more effective contribution to a better environment.