Packaging reuse in France remains a regulatory promise that is still too little visible at industrial scale: 1.82% in 2024, compared with a legal target of 10% by 2027. This figure does not reflect a lack of willingness; it highlights a supply-side problem. The French Agency for Ecological Transition, ADEME, which measures the share of reusable packaging actually placed on the market, indicates that it remains far too low. Experiments are multiplying and public support is growing. The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, or PPWR, will apply from August 2026. What is missing today is an economic and regulatory framework that makes the model competitive and operational.
Circular economy: supply remains too low and the model too fragile
The figure of 1.82% does not mean that people “do not believe in it.” It shows that the supply actually available remains too limited to shift the norm: few standardized containers, insufficient washing capacity, logistics that are still too fragmented, and an unstable economic equation for businesses.
Single-use packaging retains a structural advantage. Its apparent cost remains low because part of its impacts is not reflected in the price: waste, cleanliness, and treatment costs. As long as this gap persists, economic decision-making will continue to favor the simplest and least risky option. The consequence is well known: a proliferation of pilots, fragmented formats, difficulty reaching regular volumes and therefore lowering unit costs, and an inability to establish a reliable everyday service.
Circular economy: beverages, closing the return loop through a mixed deposit-return system
For beverage packaging, the key condition for success is closing the loop. A reusable container only has environmental value if it returns regularly into the system. If returning it is not simple, accessible, and stable, the packaging is lost in conventional waste streams and the promise disappears.
This is precisely the purpose of a mixed deposit-return system: to offer consumers a single, clear return point capable of accepting all beverage packaging and then directing it to the appropriate channel, whether reuse or recycling.
Recent insights into consumer behavior also show a marked gap between support in principle for reuse and actual adoption: as soon as the perceived effort increases, usage drops. When making trade-offs, particularly at the point of purchase, consumers favor the simplest and most immediate option.
Experience therefore shows that performance depends on practical parameters: clear rules, visible return points, the ability to absorb peaks, reliable operations, and monitoring data. Consumers choose everyday simplicity. This means designing the deposit-return system as a comprehensive system covering all beverage packaging, whether single-use plastic bottles or reusable bottles, rather than as a simple piece of equipment. It also means being able to address the organizational, maintenance, logistics, and operational management issues linked to this mixed deposit-return system.
This condition must be accompanied by clear governance and a realistic timeline, both of which are essential to provide visibility and confidence to the actors who need to invest.
Circular economy: takeaway, triggering scale
For takeaway, targets alone are not enough. As long as single-use packaging remains simpler and cheaper, the shift will remain limited. A coherent mix of levers must therefore be activated, while clearly defining the priority: acting on supply, on demand, or on both.
In this spirit, three measures can be discussed without unnecessary technical complexity:
Infrastructure support: pooling washing, logistics, and return systems, with service-quality requirements.
Economic signal on single-use packaging: a tax or fee to better internalize externalities.
Differentiation by format : adjusting contributions according to impact and operational reality.
The PPWR, applicable from August 2026, reinforces the urgent need for clarity. Actors across the entire value chain cannot invest properly without a stabilized target model. The pitfall would be to pile up transitional rules that are quickly called into question. The priority is coherence, with an economic and regulatory framework that turns reusable packaging into packaging that is actually reused, at scale.
Conclusion
France has the actors, the demand, and clear objectives. To move from experimentation to a system, what is needed above all is a stable framework that makes the model competitive, measurable, and executable.
The challenge now is to clarify the levers and sequence implementation, so that reuse becomes simple for users and sustainable for the sectors involved.
Sources
This article is a translated version. The original publication is available on Les Echos Solutions :
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