Circular Action Alliance is investing in a new Closed Loop Partners initiative aimed at expanding reusable packaging systems in California. The collaboration will support Closed Loop Partners’ forthcoming Reuse Cities™ Initiative, part of its NextGen Consortium.
The program will explore how reuse systems can be implemented and scaled within a California community while generating data that can guide future investment.
CAA is California’s Producer Responsibility Organization under SB 54, the state’s packaging extended producer responsibility program. The organization said the Reuse Cities work will support California’s reuse and refill objectives while helping producers, service providers and communities better understand how larger reuse systems can operate in practice. “We do not see reuse as a one-size-fits-all solution,” CAA stated in announcing the investment. “Instead, we see it as one important pathway that requires testing, learning and collaboration to understand where it can deliver the greatest and most cost-efficient impact.”
Moving Reuse Beyond the Pilot Stage
Reusable packaging programs depend on more than the durability of the package itself. Collection, return logistics, washing, inspection, redistribution and sufficient participation all affect whether a system can operate efficiently at scale. The Reuse Cities initiative will examine how those pieces come together in a community setting. CAA said the data generated through the program will help inform future investments in California and other states with reuse and refill requirements.
The work is also expected to help CAA identify opportunities to support producer compliance and determine where reuse can deliver practical operational and environmental benefits. Closed Loop Partners has already been involved in city-scale reuse initiatives through its NextGen Consortium, which focuses on reducing single-use packaging and developing reusable alternatives.
B2B Transport Packaging Is Also on CAA’s Radar
CAA said its investment in Reuse Cities is part of a broader strategy to accelerate the transition from single-use food serviceware to reusable systems.
The organization is also pursuing investment and collaboration opportunities in other controlled environments, with a specific focus on B2B transport packaging and B2B prefills. Closed-loop business-to-business systems operate differently from consumer reuse programs. Pallets, totes, crates, trays and other transport packaging typically circulate among a smaller number of known trading partners, making recovery, tracking and asset management easier to control.
Those characteristics have supported reuse systems in automotive, grocery, food processing, retail distribution and other supply chains for decades. CAA’s inclusion of B2B transport packaging in its broader reuse strategy could bring more attention to applications where return logistics are already well established and the economics of repeated use can be measured more readily.
Reuse and California SB 54
California’s SB 54 is pushing producers toward lower packaging waste and greater use of reuse and refill systems. CAA said the information generated through Reuse Cities will help strengthen the knowledge base needed to implement those requirements and guide future investments.
Rather than prescribing a single model, the initiative will test how reuse performs under real operating conditions and where it can be implemented most effectively. That includes understanding infrastructure requirements, operational costs, participation levels and the logistics needed to recover and recirculate packaging.
Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
