A concerning trend over the last few years has been industry reporting and commentary that points out that reusable packaging isn’t always the best approach. For those of us remotely familiar with reusable packaging, it is not exactly a shocker We know that there are variables at play that determine whether or not reusable packaging is best in terms of economic cost or sustainability impact per trip. By sensationalizing that reusable packaging might not always be the best approach, readers might be dissuaded from considering the implementation of reusable packaging at all, even when it is extremely advantageous in many applications. This might be particularly true when articles are penned by prestigious international consulting firms or appear in otherwise credible journals.
Making padded or erroneous claims against a competing product to make it easier to refute is a straw man (strawman) tactic or fallacy. In the case of packaging claims, it can be a form of greenwashing. According to Wikipedia:
The straw man fallacy refers to the refutation of a standpoint in an argument that was never proposed. The fallacy usually occurs in the presentation of an opponent’s standpoint as more extreme, distorted, or simplistic than it actually is. Compared to criticizing the opponent’s actual standpoint, this allows the arguer to offer a seeming refutation of what is, however, not the actual standpoint.
Strawman has been used in several celebrated instances by one company versus another.
Regarding reusables, I’ve seen the straw man approach a number of times over the past few years. Sometimes, the tact is subtle and hard to substantiate definitively. Other times, it can be glaringly obvious. Sometimes, it seems to be just clickbait-driven headline writers taken out of the context of the story. A recent blog post from PwC (Returnable packaging: When it works, and when it doesn’t) caught my ire in this regard. While the title seems balanced, the article is not. Rather than providing a balanced discussion of the pros and cons of reusable packaging, its focus is on when reusable packaging might fall short as a solution. This response is appropriate, presumably, in pontificating on a dubious statement made earlier in the article:
Although often lauded as the most desirable form of packaging, under the wrong circumstances returnable packaging can have negative impacts on both circularity and carbon emissions.
The above statement starts out with an overstated claim that can then be conveniently refuted. This is the straw man tact. In my experience, reusable packaging providers are very clear about when reusable packaging will work and when it will not. It is lauded as the most desirable solution given a particular variable set – not cart blanche. And given that reusables are such a small percentage of the market compared to disposable packaging, how “often” is “often” compared to competing claims made by the massive single-use segment of the market? When you are massively outnumbered, what can “often” mean?
I am not saying that this article is definitively a case of straw man, but a very strong case could be made for it. And with PwC, as a leading global consultant, it should be imperative to consciously avoid greenwashing. In this case, the blog does not indicate whether it was sponsored by a particular client. PwC did not respond to my request for further information.
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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.
