Exploring the Reusable Packaging Resource Guide
Welcome to the Reusable Takeout Packaging Resource Guide. This guide was created by members of the Materials Management Research Group to help businesses and individuals navigate participating in a reusable packaging system. The information contained in this resource guide represents a years’ worth of stakeholder informed research that engaged industry professionals, state officials and waste managers from Maine and around the country to understand what makes reusable packaging systems successful and how those systems might work in Maine. Within this guide, you will find several reports and papers that attempt answer questions like “Why focus on reusable packaging?”, “How do reusable packaging systems work?”, and “What are the major barriers to starting reusable packaging?”. The researchers have also compiled a list of resources that readers can use to learn more about specific programs as well as 4 case studies on the most common models of reusable packaging identified this study.
If you would like to learn more about reusable packaging systems or are interested in starting your own, you can reach the lead investigators, Jared Entwistle and Cynthia Isenhour, at jared.entwistle@maine.edu and Cynthia.isenhour@maine.edu respectively.