What if…people just reused their containers forever and ever?
The more I think about it the more silly it seems that we buy prepackaged food–oftentimes in really nice plastic or glass containers–and throw those packages away while spending money on tupperware. I do rinse and save a lot of containers (pasta looks cute in spaghetti sauce jars for example) but that doesn’t even occur to most people. I mean, why would you want to save an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter vat anyway? It’s ugly and cheap-looking.
I’d love to see a standardized packaging system wherein the packaging itself was simple, attractive and durable. It would be easy to remove the manufacturer’s labels and replace them with your own (or not). Maybe the packaging would even come with a re-labeling system–write-on labels that would be adhered to the packaging or stuck into a special see-through pocket or something. The problems with this: cost (packaging worth keeping is more expensive than a cellophane wrapper) and Branding. What manufacturer is going to bow to what amounts to a removal of their identity? Although I imagine if one big company bought the idea they could turn it to their advantage–look, we’re so eco friendly, look, our packaging is beautiful and memorable and will hang around your kitchen for years (perhaps with our logo embossed unobtrusively somewhere). The other issue is that of course it would have to be recyclable because these things wear out eventually and because it’s also possible to just have too many damn containers.
Maybe it’s as simple as redesigning the water bottle so the bottle and cap stay attached, and are made of the same material (I don’t know about other cities, but here our recycling program requires us to remove and throw away all bottle and can lids, or they don’t collect the recycling) for easy recycling. I forget the statistics exactly but the guy who redesigned the soda can pull tab saves hundreds of tons of aluminum from going into landfills every year–just by making sure it (usually) stays attached to the can. Not a food example, but Windex sells “refill” bottles that are exactly like regular bottles but without the nozzle. Really a simple idea (WHY re-buy the nozzle every time?), but revolutionary at the same time (seems like nobody else thought of it).
Or another encourage-reuse thing where I imagine a completely new function for some sort of packaging.