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Swedish retailers and logistics companies are collaborating to establish a circular infrastructure for reusable and returnable e-commerce packaging.
The project Cirkla aims to make reusable e-commerce packaging just as much part of the weekly routine for Swedish consumers as the bottle return system.
The Swedish bottle return system, Pantamera, is widely regarded as one of the world's most successful circular packaging models. Established in 1984, it oversees the collection of all deposit-based packaging in Sweden.
The system involves everyone: beverage manufacturers produce standardized bottles and cans designed for circularity, and grocery stores serve as collection points and manage the deposits. At the same time, consumers actively return their cans and bottles at their convenience. The return rate of bottles and cans is very impressive, standing at 88.5%!
In early 2024, RePack and Aster (Alliance for Sustainable E-commerce Sweden) began discussing a project to prepare Swedish e-commerce to adapt to the upcoming EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
The project Cirkla, explicitly addresses the new EU regulation, which mandates that 40% of e-commerce packaging must be reusable by 2030 and 70% by 2040 (excluding cardboard boxes).
Currently, reusable packaging services like RePack are still considered to be in the niche. However, the shift to reuse means that over a hundred million citizens in the EU will be using reusable packaging in the next ten years.
This regulation presents a significant challenge for e-commerce, as the return infrastructure for empty RePack packaging relies only on post boxes and selected retailer locations.
How do we make the consumers play their part and return the RePack packaging for reuse? This is the central question posed by the project Cirkla.
Considering the bottle return model, we notice that people don’t return just one bottle; they typically bring back multiple bottles at once—often ten or more. Most of the time, we collect them in a bag at home before returning them all together. We prefer returning in bulk. This would make returning to the postbox very inconvenient.
What if you could return your e-commerce delivery from Plick to your closest ICA while shopping for groceries? Or the next time you go by Gina Tricot you simply drop your RePack into a collection bin?
On the other hand, we already receive deliveries to our homes frequently—if not daily, then at least weekly. This trend is likely to accelerate over the next ten years. So, why can’t I give my reusable packaging from Stadium to a courier from Bring or EarlyBird? Or should I even return it immediately when I pick up my next Nelly.com order from the Instabee locker?
These are the questions that Project Cirkla aims to answer. What are consumers' preferences for returning reusable packaging to achieve its sustainability benefits? After all, the goal is to reduce carbon emissions and enhance resource use through circularity.
Cost-efficient and convenient return points are one of the main bottlenecks for reusable packaging to thrive, the other main blockers being packaging sizes and process efficiency in the warehouses.
Designing packaging that fits within letter size constraints is quite challenging. It limits both the materials that can be used and the dimensions of the packaging that can be folded to meet these requirements. A box that can carry a bicycle or a TV and then return it empty through a postbox is not gonna happen.
Protective packaging for cosmetics, food, and beverages faces similar challenges.
And no matter what the packaging size is, it should meet the process efficiency and tamper evidence of single-use packaging.
Partners in the Cirkla project will address some of these issues by leveraging RePack's extensive design experience in creating circular packaging solutions across various industries.
The Cirkla project officially kicks off in early 2025, and it brings together some of the biggest retailers and logistics companies in Sweden, supported by top-level research, communication, project management and funding from Vinnova.
Participants in Cirkla include the following: Brightnest, Bring Sverige, Early Bird, Gina Tricot AB, GS1, Stockholm School of Economics (HHS), ICA Paket, Instabee, Nelly.com, RePack, plick, Stadium och Svensk Handel.
