Plastic Packaging: Is There A Solution Yet?

Though plastic has a lot of uses, it also has a lot of consequences. In the last 70 or so years, plastic has “[provided] lightweight, durable and cost-effective materials for countless applications”. However, these uses are very little compared to the unfortunate consequences. Let’s dig into why plastic is harming the world and what we can do about it.

To receive the Luxiders Newsletter, sign up here.

According to the OECD in 2022, it “estimated that on current trends the amount of plastic we produce will almost triple by 2060”. By then, humans will have developed over 42 billion tonnes of plastic, damaging the environment completely. This unfortunate news is due to plastic being used in wasteful ways. One of those ways is through packaging.

Some say the answer to plastic packaging is recycling, but is it, really? According to REUSE Foundation May 2025 Report “Where Now For Plastic Packaging?” , recycling is not the solution to combat plastic packaging.

“We don’t have the capacity to recycle plastic and won’t have for decades.” — REUSE Foundation.

According to the OECD’s estimation, only 9% of plastic — globally speaking — is presently recycled. This estimation — “under its baseline scenario” — will only reach up to 17% by 2060. The other inevitably large, remaining plastic we use either goes to landfill or ends up somewhere in the environment. In the UK, “almost half” of plastic waste is “incinerated for energy recovery”. 25% of this ends up in landfills while 12% is recycled in the UK’s reprocessing facilities. Then, the other end of plastic waste is sent abroad for recycling purposes. This, however, also either gets incinerated, ends up in landfill “or is dumped by the environment.” In addition to this, plastic itself — when recycled — starts to “[degrade]” and has an increased toxicity. It can be recycled about two times before it “must become waste”.

Before reusing recycled plastic at all, it needs to be mixed with “a larger amount of virgin plastic”, 99% of which is from fossil fuels. Recycling, then, is not the best solution when it comes to combating plastic packaging.

The best solution, though, comes from REUSE Foundation.

“WE ALREADY HAVE A WAY TO PREVENT SINGLE-USE PLASTIC: REUSE” — REUSE Foundation.

For Reuse Foundation, they say the best way to solve the problem of excess plastic packaging is to reuse it. Approaching this solution “has the potential to reduce waste from plastic packaging by 90%”, which is awesome.

What’s not so awesome, though, is some companies are still not approaching reuse solutions for plastic packaging. Rather, they are focusing on disposable plastic packaging and “the illusion that recycling still works”. Despite the insistence to continue with these not-so-great solutions, a 2025 study from GoUnpackaged shows 68% of 2,000 adults in the UK mentioned they would include reuse in their “weekly shopping if the solutions were convenient”.

This means people want to reuse. And, sure, it may be challenging, but it brings so many benefits. In fact, according to Reuse Foundation, “many successful companies offer productions and solutions that shows reuse can be economically viable”. Therefore, while it sounds challenging, reuse is the solution to plastic packaging.

So far, the most principal effort when it comes to combating plastic packaging is from The Global Commitment, “a program conceived and led by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and The United Nations Environment Program”. The way that The Global Commitment combats plastic packaging is by making its use “more circular”. This is done “by changing its composition, promoting recycled content over virgin plastic and removing non-recyclable elements”.

While this solution for plastic packaging has potential, it does not completely solve the crisis of plastic. “The target effectively just encourages companies to do something of negligible benefit and perpetuates linear supply chains while claiming progress toward ‘circular’ solutions.” — REUSE Foundation.

What can we do, then, to take decisive action?

“We need to move faster and push for solutions that work. Instead of focusing on recycling and permitting business as usual, we need genuinely circular solutions that prevent plastic waste.” — REUSE Foundation.

That’s why — for REUSE Foundation — reuse is the best solution right now for plastic packaging.