RISING costs, labour shortages and evolving regulation are driving a ‘fundamental shift’ in how companies view packaging, according to reusable packaging specialist Tosca.
The firm said single-use packaging waste remains high, while material price volatility continues to impact operating costs. At the same time, most supply chain and logistics leaders report workforce shortages.
EPR schemes and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) are placing greater emphasis on waste prevention, reuse, durability and lifecycle performance.
“Packaging has long been treated as a consumable cost, but that model is becoming harder to sustain,” said Laurent Le Mercier, EMEA president at Tosca. “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.”
Tosca said single-use packaging relies on continuous material inputs, manual handling and repeated disposal. In a volatile cost environment, these dependencies are becoming ‘structural risks’.
Reusable plastic packaging offers a different operating model, the business added. Durable assets circulate across multiple cycles, shifting organisations from cost-per-unit to predictable cost-per-use, while reducing exposure to raw material volatility and ongoing waste costs.
Tosca revealed that pooling enables this at scale. Through managed networks, assets are collected, inspected, cleaned, repaired and redeployed, embedding packaging as a service within day-to-day operations rather than a one-off purchase.
PPWR introduces new expectations around reuse targets and traceability, while EPR schemes are evolving to reflect lifecycle performance and material impact. For businesses relying on single-use systems, Tosca claimed this creates ongoing exposure to rising fees, reporting complexity and potential redesign.
To explore how these structural challenges are reshaping European supply chains, Tosca has launched a whitepaper, The Business Case for Reusable Transport Packaging, which explore these trends in detail. Download the whitepaper here.
