Redefining BYOB: Closed Loop Partners encourages reusable bag beyond grocery stores with latest retail pilot

03 May 2023 --- The Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag managed by Closed Loop Partners is launching a pilot dubbed “Bring Your Own Bag” across retail shops in Denver and Tucson, US. Over 150 stores are joining the pilot to determine whether collective retailer action can advance a broader reuse culture.

“The strategies deployed in the Bring Your Own Bag Pilot are designed to be low-cost and easy to implement, providing a model to scale to other markets,” Kate Daly, head of the center for the circular economy at Closed Loop Partners, tells PackagingInsights.

“New retailers are joining the pilot every week, and we hope even more will join us in identifying the most effective strategies to support customers in bringing their bags. The insights from this test will inform what it will take to advance a national cultural shift toward reuse, where customers in any market can sustainably and conveniently get their goods home.”Based on pilot results, the consortium will explore scaling strategies, catalyzing a national cultural shift around reuse.

National brands in the US, including consortium partners CVS Health, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar General, Kroger, through local King Soopers & Fry’s stores, TJX, through local TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores and Ulta Beauty, will simultaneously test bag reduction solutions. Local mom-and-pop shops are also joining the pilot to determine whether collective retailer action can drive a broader cultural shift, where bringing reusable bag becomes the norm wherever customers shop.

Daly highlights the pilot is being rolled out between May-July this year to assess the effectiveness of reuse interventions and solutions across areas with different policy and customer landscapes. 

Don’t forget your keys, wallet and bag
Market research conducted by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag found that while reusable bags are one of the most adopted reusable products, a lack of consistent use exists. To reinforce reuse behavior at scale, the Bring Your Own Bag pilot aims to support customers to remember bags more frequently and reimagine where they could bring them beyond just the grocery store. 

Participating retailers will test the same bag reduction strategies found in the consortium’s Playbook – including signage, marketing and customer prompts about reusable bags. “The main goal of the Bring Your Own Bag Pilot is to determine how collective retailer action can encourage customers to bring their bag more frequently, whenever and wherever they shop,” reiterates Daly. 

“More broadly, it aims to drive culture change by supporting reuse and, ultimately, bag reduction. The consortium will measure this by analyzing the impact of collective action across diverse markets, retailers, and customers and measuring the impact on customers, retail operations, finances, and the environment. While plastic use, especially related to bags, has been difficult to measure in the past, our goal with these pilots is to create a robust measurement system to understand our impact.”

Over and over again
Closed Loop Partners estimates that 100 billion plastic bags are used annually in the US, and fewer than 10% are recycled. “Resource limits, supply chain disruption, and plastic pollution increase the urgency to move from a take-make-waste economic system and disposable culture to a more circular economy where materials are shared and reused,” it emphasizes.The Bring Your Own Bag Pilot is a first-of-its-kind initiative.

Moreover, market researcher Innova Market Insights named “Reusable revival” a top packaging trend for 2023. “Despite the initial fervor, very few initiatives to drive the adoption of reusable packaging systems within retail FMCG have withstood the test of time. Yet locally driven, country-specific initiatives focusing primarily on navigating the shift toward a reusable packaging ecosystem within the foodservice industry continue to gain momentum,” Akhil Eashwar Aiyar, projects leader at Innova Market Insights, shared with us.

“Also, personal care and household products have had a higher adoption of refill or reusable packaging solutions, with companies capitalizing on leveraging this trend as an avenue to achieve plastics savings. This relative success could be attributed to lower consumer concerns regarding the safety of reusable packaging for non-food applications.”

Closed Loop Partners says that reducing single-use bags across retailers can make a tremendous difference. “Even a 1% bag reduction significantly impacts our waste footprint – it is equivalent to one billion fewer bags used and discarded in the US. Empowering customers to bring their bag plays a key role in single-use bag reduction,” the organization concludes.

By Radhika Sikaria