In my grandparents generation packaging was multipurpose because people had the willingness and know-how to reuse an item (e.g. sewing).  There was also a strong economic motive for the reuse of packaging. People were much poorer and reuse was clearly worth it. If feed came in cloth bags today, the cloth would probably not be put to the same use. Some would be used, but there wouldn’t be enough of a pay-off or know- how for many dresses or shirts to be made from it. 

If packaging is going to be reused by many today, then it must require few skills to put it to good use—in other words, it has to be simple. It must also be cheap. It can’t cost much to reuse the packaging in terms of effort, time, or money. 

A good example of packaging that meets both of these requirments is POM tea. The package is designed to be a slender glass, and though I don’t drink it often, I have a couple of these glasses in my cabinet. What if Coke and Sobe and other drink manufacturers followed POM’s lead? The amount of glass going to the landfill would surely be greatly reduced. 

Imagine what would happen if most packaging was either multifunctional or refillable.  This is not an unimaginable future. It was the reality not all that long ago. Of course we need a cultural shift to make this work. We need to move away from a focus on new things, and reinvigorate the values of self-sufficiency that made feedbag fashion possible. 

I think this cultural shift is already under way. We are all so tired and used to the prefab, ready-to-eat world. More and more people are joining the DIY culture, from home brewers to home cooks to gardeners. Now the manufacturers need to just catch up with this trend.