We do that already for many liquids. Water cooler bottles. Propane tanks. Milk used to be available exactly as described.
To add to the list, FedEx envelopes have two adhesive strips so that they might be re-used… but I’ve never ever heard of anybody reusing one.
Why is that?
On the plastic vs wood question… does anybody get asked anymore if they want paper or plastic bags at the store?
On an energy basis, I think that any wood is a great material if we can properly manage the harvest and re-growth. After all, trees are the ultimate in solar energy conversion.
The problem is that a lot of wood gets thrown out instead of reused. Architectural construction almost always uses “new” wood. Unwanted wood does not get ground up into paper or MDF but, like paper usually ends up in landfills instead of the recycle bin.
:)ensen.