Tosca believes that reusable packaging is becoming a key element of European supply chain infrastructure. According to the company, businesses are increasingly moving away from treating packaging as a disposable consumable and are beginning to view it as an infrastructure asset used in repeatable operating cycles. This shift is said to result from overlapping factors including rising operating costs, labour shortages and changing packaging regulations. The company notes that the level of waste from single-use packaging remains high, while material price volatility continues to affect operating costs. At the same time, 76% of supply chain and logistics leaders report workforce shortages. Additional pressure comes from regulation, including Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and the EU's PPWR regulation, which place growing emphasis on waste prevention, reuse, durability and performance across the packaging lifecycle.
As Laurent Le Mercier, Tosca's EMEA President, indicates, the previous model based on treating packaging as a consumable cost is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. "Packaging has long been treated as a consumable cost, but that model is becoming harder to sustain. With regulation tightening alongside cost and labour pressures, reusable packaging is becoming core infrastructure. It enables businesses to reduce waste at source while improving cost predictability and operational resilience."
Moving away from the single-use model
According to Tosca, single-use packaging is associated with continuous raw material consumption, labour-intensive handling and repeated waste disposal. In a volatile cost environment, such dependencies are becoming a structural risk for operations. The alternative is reusable plastic packaging, which operates under a different model. Durable assets circulate through multiple use cycles, making it possible to move from a cost-per-unit approach to a more predictable cost-per-use model. At the same time, exposure to raw material price volatility and ongoing waste-related costs is reduced.
The company emphasises that pooling enables this model to scale. In managed networks, packaging assets are collected, inspected, cleaned, repaired and redeployed. In this way, packaging becomes a service embedded in day-to-day operations rather than a one-off purchase. Standardisation is also important and, according to Tosca, supports consistency across the supply chain, facilitates automation, improves load stability and reduces handling complexity, damage and process variability.
Compliance and operational resilience
Tosca notes that as regulatory requirements become more stringent, packaging decisions are increasingly linked not only to costs but also to legal compliance. The PPWR regulation introduces new expectations regarding reuse targets, durability and traceability, while Extended Producer Responsibility schemes are evolving towards taking lifecycle parameters and material impact into account. For companies relying on single-use systems, this means increasing exposure to higher fees, more complex reporting and the potential need to redesign existing solutions.
According to the company, reusable packaging and pooling systems can support compliance with these requirements by reducing waste at source, supporting traceability and enabling controlled, repeatable use across multiple cycles. At the same time, greater handling consistency and standardisation can reduce operational risk, including workplace injuries and product damage, while supporting more efficient transport and storage.
A structural shift in packaging strategy
In Tosca's view, persistent cost pressure and increasing regulatory scrutiny mean that packaging is becoming a strategic rather than merely tactical decision. Reusable packaging is expected to offer a way to stabilise costs, reduce risk and adapt to changing regulatory requirements within a single system, positioning it as an important component of more resilient supply chains.
To discuss these developments in greater detail, Tosca has published a white paper titled The Business Case for Reusable Transport Packaging, in which it presents the trends affecting European supply chains in more detail.
