The WooCommerce plugin from WeRePack.org makes it possible to reuse shipping boxes. How can online stores use the extension to contribute to greater sustainability? We spoke to Philipp Wellmer from WeRePack about this.

Philipp, you have developed a WooCommerce plugin that helps to reduce shipping waste. What is the background?

It only takes a glance at the waste paper garbage can to change our perspective. For decades, we have been led to believe that recycling is the solution to our waste problem. However, recycling an average shipping carton, for example, requires 123 liters of water and produces 156 grams of CO2.

It takes chemicals to dissolve the paper fibers, fresh wood fibers from 0.0024 trees and other chemicals to turn the fibers back into cardboard. Every shipping carton that is sent out again saves all of this. The principle must be: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". Reducing consumption is something only everyone can do themselves, we can have little influence here.

Nevertheless, with WeRePack we can show that there are a number of areas in which reuse is feasible with simple means and everyone can easily get involved.

Integration into the purchasing process

How does the WooCommerce plugin work for merchants? And how for customers of online shops?

The free store extension can be downloaded from WeRePack.org and WordPress.org. It simply needs to be installed and activated. It is then automatically integrated into the purchase process. Customers can now click a checkbox to give their consent to receive their order - if available - in reused shipping packaging.

The plugin offers some customization options for retailers. For example, they can choose where and how the customer's consent is obtained. In addition, a voucher can optionally be linked to the order, which is credited to the order if customers choose the option of used packaging. For example, the cost savings for new packaging can be shared with the customer.

Various counters can also be integrated on your own website to show how much packaging, water, CO2 and trees have been saved together with customers. True to the motto "Do something good and talk about it", we want to create an additional incentive for retailers.

Organization of the packaging

What processes do retailers need to establish and what additional work does it mean for them to reuse packaging?

With a little creativity, the additional effort is limited. As the WooCommerce plugin is very easy to integrate into the payment process, the biggest hurdle at the moment is procuring suitable shipping packaging. Some stores already have used packaging from returns, others collect it in the neighborhood or enter into cooperations with nearby supermarkets, for example, where suitably sized boxes are set aside.

We are working on an infrastructure in which packaging that has already been used and is in perfect condition can be collected, sorted, handed over to retailers and reshipped. Ideally, in addition to the positive impact on the environment, we will also achieve cost savings for retailers and, in the future, an income for people in precarious situations.

Our team has a social-entrepreneurial perspective and wants to be able to expand both the ecological and the social impact.

Based on your initial experiences: How willing are online stores and customers to use used packaging?

70 percent of customers choose the option of receiving their order in packaging that has already been used during the checkout process. We can measure this because some stores share the approval figures with us, which can be viewed on our website. Measuring the impact is very important to us in order to encourage other online stores to join in.

It turns out that most customers have no problems at all with reused packaging and even consider it to be the better option. Getting retailers to participate is quite a big effort in comparison. Since we all work on the project on a voluntary basis, we often don't have the time to search out stores and write to them specifically. Accordingly, we rely on word of mouth and communication with reach, such as this interview.

Legal and logistical issues

Every store that joins contributes to increasing the willingness to participate and growing the community. Stores often struggle with legal or logistical issues. Clarifying these is part of our offer. You can already find some information on our website WeRePack.org, where we are also available to answer questions.

Incidentally, our plugin can be used for more than just German-speaking countries. There is already a bookseller from Malaysia, for example, who sends his books in old newspaper with the customer's consent. This store also shares the number of consents with us so that we can measure how much packaging has been reused, how much CO2 and water has been saved and how many fewer trees have been felled.

How can retailers motivate their customers to opt for used packaging?

At the beginning, we did a lot of field research and approached and interviewed people in post office queues, for example. Many people already use packaging that they have previously received themselves. In apartment buildings, the paper garbage cans are overflowing. Many people associate receiving a parcel, opening it and holding unnecessary waste in their hands with a negative feeling.

Customers are therefore usually fully aware of the unnecessary waste, but they are rarely offered an alternative. Customers may need to motivate retailers rather than the other way around. Participating online stores can use transparent communication and - as already mentioned - optional voucher or discount campaigns to advertise their participation and encourage conscious customers to take part.

Stores that cannot install the plugin because they use an unsupported system are welcome to contact us and become part of the community if they offer the service in another way. Support for Magento and Shopify is planned. The more customers and stores rely on recycling, the more it will be demanded - we have to get there.

Originally, you had other approaches to making online shopping more sustainable. What did these look like? And why did you decide to use classic cardboard packaging after all?

Initially, we wanted to set up a circular deposit system. In other words, to establish our own packaging that is stable and can be recycled again and again. Similar to drinks crates or EU pallets and ideally packed with technology, such as a digital shipping label, GPS tracking, geofencing and an app. Made from recycled plastic, the packaging should come back to us again and again and then be reintroduced into the cycle. We even won a prize with this approach and used the small prize money to pursue the idea further.

Life cycle assessment of shipping packaging

However, at some point we had to admit to ourselves that such packaging has to be sent out an unrealistic number of times before it has a better environmental footprint than cardboard boxes. This is comparable to "memo", an online store for office supplies, which has been a pioneer in using its own reusable shipping system for many years. The green memo boxes are also made from recycled plastic. They are sent to the customer with the goods and then returned empty.

According to "memo", their environmental footprint improves from the 55th cycle (shipping and returns) compared to the use of conventional packaging. This is remarkable if a box actually goes through the cycle more often. Unfortunately, the approach has not caught on on a large scale and the majority of their shipped orders still end up in conventional boxes. We then discarded the reusable shipping box approach after just under a year. Also because there are now various start-ups pursuing similar concepts.

Some of them are overloaded with technology, where 55 cycles are certainly not enough for a better environmental balance. Nevertheless, it is important to work on this. And hopefully a circular solution - perhaps even a standard like that for EU pallets - will be established at some point. Until then, however, cardboard boxes also have great advantages: Lightweight, stable, compact, inexpensive and recyclable. They should simply not end up in the bin straight away, but be reused.

And we proved that they can withstand more with a shipping experiment. We sent a parcel across Germany. After the 10th shipment, the box was no longer the prettiest, but it was still usable. This was the initial spark for the search for a way to send packaging into another life - the beginning of WeRePack.

A few words about the team behind WeRePack?

We started in 2018 as part of a postgraduate course at the Social Entrepreneurship Academy in Munich. The team was asked to go to a large street, observe what was going on there and find problems that needed to be solved. A lot came together.

However, the overflowing paper garbage cans and rushed parcel deliverers aroused our greatest interest. Probably also because we were all affected as regular recipients ourselves. We work full-time in a wide variety of areas and simply enjoy developing concepts to solve social challenges and getting involved in this project.

It is particularly nice that more people have joined us in recent months. This has given us all a huge motivational boost. The fact that there are even more people who believe in the usefulness of the initiative is hugely important for us. By the way, we would be delighted to have more supporters and to hear about the initiative.