Reviving the milk man: consumers’ evaluations of circular reusable packaging offers

The question of prolonging the lifetime of food packages before they are disposed of has largely been overlooked. Yet, reusing packaging could bring interesting environmental benefits. In this research, we take a consumer perspective and test whether returnable packaging for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) has the potential to be adopted by consumers. The results of two experimental studies show that evaluations of returnable packaging are generally positive. Consumers perceive returnable packages as much more eco-friendly than their disposable counterparts, and the product inside as more qualitative even though the tested products were sensitive (i.e. yoghurt and ice cream). In addition, they are more likely to recommend a product sold in a returnable packaging and high environmentally concerned individuals are more likely to repurchase it. However, when signs of usage resulting from multiple uses were introduced on the returnable packaging, attitudes were generally less positive and individuals were also less likely to recommend and repurchase the product. These results highlight the importance of downplaying the negative effects of signs of usage in the design of returnable packaging.