Reusable packaging faces a $258 billion market by 2035

By Grace Kim

A recent market report put the global reusable packaging market above $150.4 billion in 2025 and projected $258 billion by 2035. At Mainetti, Mike Jones leads a global team of 50 research and design specialists as head of innovation and general manager of intelligent solutions.

The $258 billion figure is a market forecast, not an installed-capacity figure. It arrives as plastic pollution and raw-material costs rise, while regulators move end-of-life costs onto packaging producers.

Jones’s group coordinates strategy, new technologies, materials and processes across the company. He joined Mainetti as a product manager in 1992 and later became head of design. He served as design director at Design Reality UK in 2019 before returning in January 2023, bringing three decades of experience.

The rules reshape package economics

The U.S. Plastics Pact launched in 2025 brings governments, businesses and nongovernmental organizations together across the plastic packaging value chain. Its five-stage roadmap includes identifying viable reusable packaging systems and increasing their implementation and scale by 2030.

As of 2026, California, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington form part of seven states with comprehensive extended producer responsibility programs, and more states were expected to follow. The programs make producers financially responsible for packaging at end of life, while fee structures increasingly reward reusable and recyclable formats.

Minnesota’s Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act requires all packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2032. Washington’s Recycling Reform Act requires producer responsibility organizations to fund and implement programs that promote reuse and refill systems.

Oregon’s scheme adds a financial incentive rather than only a design rule. Producers that shift to reusable or refillable formats can reduce their costs through the fee structure, easing the burden that reuse systems can otherwise place on brands.

Across Europe, extended producer responsibility schemes place the financial burden of end-of-life packaging management on producers. The European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation sets binding reuse targets, while the United Kingdom’s EPR scheme and Canada’s Single-Use Plastic Prohibition Regulations add pressure beyond the EU.

For producers, these schedules turn packaging design into a compliance function with potential upfront supply-chain costs. Firms that treat regulation only as a compliance exercise may absorb that expense, while early movers can redesign portfolios and build return systems before deadlines arrive.

What does reuse change for packaging producers?

Reusable packaging requires durable materials and higher initial spending. Its commercial case rests on repeated use, lower exposure to virgin plastic prices and new revenue streams. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that replacing 20 percent of global single-use plastic packaging with reusable alternatives could create a financial opportunity worth at least $10 billion.

Supply volatility gives that calculation urgency. Recent geopolitical instability has exposed chains dependent on virgin plastics, while disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to pressure global petrochemical supplies and contribute to sharp increases in plastic prices.

About 40 percent of global plastic production goes into single-use packaging, and consumer-goods producers felt the price pressure quickly. Keeping packages in circulation can reduce this exposure by using materials repeatedly instead of buying new plastic for each use.

Early movers can also strengthen customer relationships and build more resilient supply chains. Reuse still requires an operating chain. Returned packages must fit a system for collection, cleaning and recirculation, rather than remain a design concept without recovery infrastructure.

Jones said: “Reusable packaging is a critical step in the right direction, it is not the primary solution.” He added: “Achieving genuine circularity requires a blended approach, where producers need to consider the materials, design formats, and technologies that form the entire packaging lifecycle.”

Materials and data determine the return system

That approach starts with materials, formats and technologies across the full packaging lifecycle. Digital Product Passports create a standardized digital record for each product, including its origin, material composition, and instructions for reuse, recycling or disposal.

Life Cycle Assessment tools compare the environmental impacts of materials before designers select a format. They identify where waste or energy use produces the highest emissions, allowing producers to choose lower-emission options at those stages, reduce packaging waste and improve recycling efficiency.

Used together, the two tools improve data reliability, supply-chain visibility and design-stage decisions. They also increase compatibility between packaging formats and reuse systems at end of life.

Mono-material packaging is gaining ground because a package built from one material is easier to recycle. Its disposal route removes the need for consumers and businesses to separate recyclable and non-recyclable components, reducing contamination and improving recovery efficiency.

FSC-certified paper and fiber-based formats are also being adopted more widely because they fit existing collection infrastructure. Paper and board packaging now achieves an approximately 60 percent recycling rate in the United States, demonstrating the advantage of fitting products into systems that already operate at scale.

The same compatibility logic applies to reuse. Materials that integrate with established infrastructure stand a better chance of being returned, cleaned and recirculated, while packages designed without a recovery route face a practical barrier.

Producers now face a sequence: audit packaging portfolios, pilot reuse systems, invest in data infrastructure and redesign formats around the rules taking effect. The 2032 Minnesota deadline provides a binding test, requiring every package to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. The broader reusable-packaging market forecast reaches $258 billion in 2035.