French startup Hipli is helping to reduce single-use packaging waste in the e-commerce industry with its reusable pouch that can be reused up to 100 times.

The idea behind the reusable packaging is that e-merchants buy Hipli packages to send their products to their customers. The consumer unpacks the box and, instead of throwing it away, fol

ds it up and slips it into the enclosed postage-paid envelope. Then it heads off not to the recycling can, but to the mailbox

The packaging arrives back in Hipli's factory in Normandy where it is checked, disinfected, and, after any necessary refurbishment, returns to the circuit. Each parcel has an RFID chip that is scanned on departure and return.

Although the Hipli packages are themselves made from plastic, their reusability, according to Hipli, is its saving grace - each package in circulation reduces 25kg of cardboard waste and reduces its carbon footprint by 83% compared to single-use packaging.

Hipli's founders, Léa Got and Anne-Sophie Raoult, said: "All packaging has a negative impact on the environment. But anything that does not last is a bigger problem than a plastic package, which will be massively reused, and whose end-of-life recycling is controlled thanks to our partners. 

"After laboratory tests, the material we chose was the only one capable of allowing a durability of one hundred cycles and thus drastically reducing the impact of the package."

Once the reusable plastic packaging reaches the end of its life it is recycled and transformed by two French companies, who use it to create upcycled furniture.

More than 150 brands in France have started using Hipli packages, since the startup launched in July 2020.

Hipli

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine's Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living