Safe to reuse: health & safety as competitive advantage for reusable packaging
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Beyond its environmental and economic benefits, reuse is also a powerful health opportunity. Single-use packaging carries its own, well-documented health risks, and shifting to reuse systems is a chance to reduce the chemical risks associated with the vast quantities of single-use food packaging in circulation today. This is something we have been raising the alarm on for years: “Bye Bye to PVC in food packaging – once and for all” or “What’s inside food-contact paper packaging? Plastic.”
Yet, safety concerns are one of the arguments raised against reusable food and drink packaging. To make that case clearly and practically, in April 2026, ZWE published new safety guidelines as part of the ‘Blueprint for harmonising the implementation of takeaway food and drinks packaging systems for reuse in Europe’ to address these concerns head-on. This third annex, the ‘safety guidelines,’ includes additional information to the Guaranteed Safety criteria within the original blueprint.
These guidelines cover the full cycle of reusable packaging, from material choice and packaging manufacturing to testing, collecting, cleaning, and redistribution, giving businesses and reuse solution providers clear, practical criteria to demonstrate that their packaging remains safe and hygienic across multiple uses.
Rather than treating safety as a barrier and a vulnerability that may prevent businesses from choosing reusable food packaging, these guidelines help reuse practitioners to work out how to prove that their packaging is truly safe, and turn it into a competitive advantage.
These investments are investments in future-proof solutions, and well-designed, tested reusable packaging should be the go-to choice for public procurers.
On 24 September 2026, 14:00-15:30 CEST we organised a 90-minute webinar bringing together leading European experts to dig into the safety guidelines and tackle the big questions around health and safety in packaging reuse:
- How to practically embed health & safety aspects of packaging reuse systems on an equal playing field with considerations of economic & environmental performance
- What implementing these guidelines looks like in practice for reuse solution providers in Europe today
- How to communicate the health risks of single-use packaging and the benefits of reusable alternatives to both businesses and citizens
Watch the recording
Presentations
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Safe to Reuse: health & safety as competitive advantage for reusable packagingNathan Dufour - Zero Waste Europe
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Why do we need safety guidelines?Dorota Napierska- Zero Waste Europe
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Chemical exposure in foodware and food packagingDr. Etienne Cabane - Food Packaging Forum
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Reusing plastic packaging: a catalyst for an ambitious circular economy - strategy and advances of the Industrial Technical Center for Plastics and Composites (IPC)Juliette Brunet - IPC
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Dirty until proven cleanDavide Mazzanti - Sykell
Speakers
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Dorota NapierskaToxic-Free Circular Economy Policy Officer at Zero Waste Europe -
Dr. Etienne CabaneEngagement Director at Food Packaging Forum Foundation -
Juliette BrunetCircular Economy Programme Manager at IPC -
Davide MazzantiCEO at Sykell -
Nathan Dufour - moderatorReuse Systems Manager | Leader of the ReuSe Vanguard Project (RSVP) at Zero Waste Europe