A SHIFT IN FOCUS

The three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) are written in a specific order, for a good reason. It’s a simple message, use less, keep using it, then when you’re done find another use for it. The trouble is, recycling is a means to an end. It’s an unsustainable approach to deal with the disproportionate volume of waste we produce. The recycling symbol offered a clean conscience for brands and became a shorthand for sustainable action. As consumers, we are absolved from the responsibility of managing our waste for the relatively small price of putting out a few extra bins. Whilst recycling has and will continue to be an important way we repurpose our resources, alone it’s not enough.

Now comes the shift, reduce and reuse.

An infinitely more challenging approach to waste management on a mass scale. Your local farm shop can sell tomatoes unpackaged to drop in your tote bag before strolling home on a lazy Sunday morning, but how can we scale up the idea of reduce and reuse. How can we make it accessible for the way we live our lives now?

It will take willing from both sides of the checkout. Supermarkets will reconsider supply chains and logistics to eliminate all but essential single-use packaging. As consumers, we will have our part to play as well, possibly the hardest challenge of them all. A change in our behaviour. The pre-programmed normality of walking out of a store with purchased goods neatly packaged will soon be over.

OK not such a big deal, after all, we’re doing it with coffee cups and water bottles but consider this. Morning coffee is a routine, we drink water throughout the day, every day. Can we apply the same reusable thinking we see from Huskee cups or Chilly bottles to help solve the problem of single-use packaging in our grocery shopping?

How about this for a crazy idea, if we are buying something it’s our responsibility to package it. Unpackaged supermarkets are the future. “But what about when I need to pop into Tesco on the way home from work to pick up a few bits for dinner. Do I have to carry around my bag for life and half my kitchen Tupperware all day ?”

Well, you can do, or you could borrow one...

Our idea for Stax was simple, how can we encourage people to change their behaviour? To make a socially responsible decision by taking their own packaging to the shops? By creating a modular system of interchangeable containers that you can store efficiently, transport easily and stack intuitively, Stax became an enabler for good decision making. Sort of like a cross between mini shipping containers and Russian dolls.

When developing this idea, we became intrigued by how people would actually use these things. OK so you can buy your own sure, but could you also borrow somebody else’s? When caught short in the fresh fruit aisle with a scoop full of blueberries the store could help out. Supermarket chains could own their own Stax, borrow it one day, take it back next time you go. Online food shopping could be delivered in Stax and collected next time. Pooling these things or offering a community around them could be the future.

Stax is a concept, but could something like this actually happen? Well, what’s the point in offering packaging-free supermarkets if we can’t help people use them. In the process, new routines will be found when food shopping. If 2020 has taught us anything it's that people can change their behaviour to adapt to new normal. Covid has accelerated behaviour change for one crisis, let’s use this as an opportunity to speed up change for the next, much bigger one.