Circular packaging in the textile industry
Exploration of circular packaging solutions for E-commerce
Date: January 2023 – December 2024
Client:
Circular Packaging Cluster (CPC) and Norwegian Fashion & Textile Agenda (NF&TA)
Industry:
Textile, Manufacturing and Packaging
Project group:
Gro Haram, Sustainability Manager, NF&TA
Camilla Block Hellum, Project Manager/Business designer
Ola Ronæss, Cluster Manager and Strategic business advisor, CPC
Jørgen Ingeberg, Packaging expert and Strategic business advisor, CPC
Linda Refvik, CEO, NF&TA
Funded by:
Viken (now Akershus) Fylkeskommune
Challenge:
CPC and NF&TA joined forces to explore the potential for circular packaging in the textile industry. The project sought answer to the following questions:
How can packaging used by the textile industry become more circular?
What are the main problem areas and obstacles? Which solutions can contribute most to reduce the environmental footprint of packaging in the industry?
What business opportunities and players exist within the development, production, and recycling of circular packaging in Viken and its surrounding areas?
Can we create packaging that can be reused multiple times and across different parts of the value chain?
Ambition:
The ambition was to establish a foundation for more efficient and circular use of packaging resources in textile industry.
The results
Key takeaways from the project:
It has demonstrated that there is significant interest in circular packaging solutions within the textile industry.
Circularity can not be solved by one company can alone. It requires a system change and collaboration is key.
The upcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations (PPWR) will drive the need for new solutions which is giving us hope that we can move from today's linear model of "take-make-dispose" to a circular model, where packaging operates within a closed-loop system and is continuously reused.
Next step: Piloting with partners in 2025
The clusters have received funding from Stiftelsen Teknologiformidling to conduct a pilot for testing solutions for circular reusable packaging in E-Commerce within Posten's logistics systems. So far, we’ve partnered with Posten Bring, Swix/Brav, Northern Playground, Repasdo and RePack, but the clusters aim for running this project is to change industry practices - so more actors will be included in the process.
My role and contrubution:
Project Manager, leading the project with a focus on strategic planning, research and engaging cluster members from both the textile and packaging industries.
Together with the team collecting and analyzing data to identify key challenges and explore possible solutions and scenarios.
Assessing the potential for creating packaging that could be reused multiple times and across different parts of the value chain, as well as exploring the feasibility of using recycled textiles as materials.
Maintain communication between CPC, NF&TA, and partners involved during the process.
Plan and facilitate workshops and seminars to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration among cluster members.
Recruit partners for further experimentation and testing
Reporting on economy and deliveries.
“Packaging is really about systems. It’s not about the product, it’s also about process and participation.
Only with that perspective in mind are you going to see how reusables work on a system level.”
