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Dive Brief:

• Reuse standards developer PR3 is working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on revising its draft digital standard. The standard seeks to align data fields used on containers and collection points so that reuse systems become more interoperable and share infrastructure like washing hubs.
• The collaboration is the result of PR3’s parent organization, Resolve, winning $50,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy through the first phase of the Re-X Before Recycling Prize.
• In this first round, reuse solutions organization Upstream also won $50,000 in funding for research into infrastructure for reusable foodware systems to be successful, starting with high-volume sectors such as events, food service, schools and airports.

Dive Insight:

Reuse is local, and many operators that currently provide reusable containers are region-specific. But if these systems remain siloed, it will be difficult for the reuse movement to scale, according to Claudette Juska, co-founder and technical director of PR3.

If every company did reuse with their own vertically integrated supply chain, it would be expensive, inefficient and could never scale, Juska said. PR3 brought stakeholders together to establish a common set of rules to make systems more interoperable and scalable.

Almost five years ago, PR3, also known as the Global Alliance to Advance Reuse, started writing standards with stakeholders. The work is being formalized through the American National Standards Institute and other standards bodies around the world. Companies like Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Clorox are some of those helping to pilot the standards.

The digital standard was in early draft format; DOE is supporting PR3 as it revises and finalizes it. “We want to standardize the data elements that have to be attached to reusable packaging, so that a system of reverse logistics can collect the packaging, transport it, wash it — and the data needed to do that would be integrated into a QR code,” said Juska.

An analyst from NREL who is an expert in life cycle assessment is helping PR3 understand and measure the environmental impact of these systems, “so as we collect data on them, we can ensure these systems are as efficient as possible, so they have the lowest environmental impact as possible, the most positive social impacts as possible,” Juska said.

Down the road, Juska said this data tracking could identify where there’s excess capacity in systems, for example. “Can we move containers around? Where is there a void? Where do we need to create new wash facilities so that these containers can be collected and transported as efficiently as possible and washed in the right location?”

DOE’s Re-X initiative aims to extend product life through reuse, repair, refurbishing, remanufacturing or repurposing. PR3 expects to apply for funding in the second and third phases of the program as well.

As for Upstream, it plans to “use this prize to uncover the financial linchpins to making those reuse systems possible in every city,” Upstream CEO Crystal Dreisbach said in a statement.

Besides digital, the other areas PR3’s standards cover are containers, collection points, incentives, labeling, reverse logistics and washing. There are working groups for each. PR3 aims to have all standards finalized and published with ANSI designation by end of 2025.