Interpool

About Interpool

The Interpool project is a collaboration between fourteen organisations from four European countries. Together, we are exploring and testing the conditions for a pooling system for scaling up the reuse of glass packaging across national borders. The project is funded by Interreg North-West Europe.

Aims

1. Mapping existing systems in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
2. Identifying technical, logistical, and policy bottlenecks.
3. Determining how to make systems work across borders.
4. Learning from real-world experiences of retailers, fillers, and innovators.
5. Delivering a shared action plan for reusable glass packaging across Europe.

Interpool is here to unlock the untapped potential of transnational reuse of glass packaging. The project runs from January 2026 until June 2029. 

Glass is very suitable to be washed, refilled and reused. While the EU’s new packaging regulations (PPWR) are driving a shift toward a circular economy, the potential of glass reuse is still trapped between national borders. Interpool is here to unlock this potential. Through our cross-border project, Interpool, we are ready to break bottlenecks instead of bottles.

Reusable glass is one of the most promising pathways to reach Europe’s climate ambitions, but it only works if we collaborate. Interpool offers a unique opportunity to prevent fragmentation and accelerate an industry-wide transition to reuse. 

Currently, reuse systems follow different logics per country or industry. We are uniting frontrunners from Northwest-Europe to harmonise solutions. Together with actors across the product’s lifecycle, we will work towards enabling cross-country alignment of reuse systems, so that glass packaging can be jointly circulated, collected, cleaned, and reused, to make glass reuse more cost-effective and environmentally friendly across the region. This harmonisation of infrastructure and processes can reduce complexity, lower waste management costs, and increase scale across the involved countries.

From washing facilities and glass providers to supermarkets, food and beverage producers, and consumers – the entire value chain can benefit from a more accessible and effective reuse ecosystem.

Zero Waste Europe’s role in Interpool

Zero Waste Europe leads Interpool’s communications and dissemination activities as part of the project’s Work Package 3 activities, and leads on the definition of a scale-up action plan as part of Work Package 1.

Partners