A NEW WAY HOME Assessing the design opportunities to replace today’s single-use plastic retail bag Executive Summary For decades, the single-use plastic bag reigned as the dominant design solution for one of the most common human activities: getting a purchase home. But that popularity comes at a great cost; almost all plastic bags end up in a landfill, are incinerated, or leak into the environment as trash. How do you replace one of the most abundant This truly is a moment for bold ideas and grand objects in our global economy? For starters, by experiments. One when we have the imperative not expecting the answer to be one thing. There and opportunity to change that status quo. The are so many sources of inspiration for solving imperative of consumer demand and increasing this challenge. This report intends to organize regulations on single-use plastic bags in the and frame the innovation already underway United States and around the world, and the in redesigning not just the retail carryout bag, opportunity for innovation driven by a retail but also the actions and behaviors that shape landscape already shifting dramatically due to the experience of getting goods home. evolving technology. Building excitement and optimism around potential solutions starts with defining the design moment we’re in. A New Way Home 2 Diagnosing the Issue Tracking Emerging Innovations with Bags Today The world isn’t starting from zero. There is already a wide range of existing companies, products, The imperative behind solving this massive and ideas that can inspire new thinking and challenge so quickly is revealed in the assessment further articulate opportunities for great design. of the bag landscape today. Our present array of options all carry tradeoffs—for the environ- Perhaps most developed already, is the industry ment, for people, for businesses, or all three. around new bag replacements—ranging from bio-based materials, to tech-infused carriers, Consumer and regulatory reactions to single- to new methods of preserving perishable items. use plastic bags aren’t surprising; single-use When it comes to reusability, there are entire plastic bags cause harm to our ecosystems and systems to be explored including closed loop our recycling systems. But paper and today’s delivery, container exchanges, and reverse vending common reusable options all carry their own machines. And finally, what design approaches set of drawbacks. From production through are eliminating the bag altogether? Autonomous end of life, no product presently existing at vehicle technology, drone deliveries, and zero-waste scale offers a tenable, long-term solution. stores are all experimenting with concepts that do not involve a store-provided form of secondary packaging—the packaging (such as a bag) that a product is transported in from point of sale to final customer destination. Framing Design Opportunities Big challenges like this affect nearly everyone, everywhere, within every walk of the retail industry. Aligning existing businesses, emerging innovations, and consumer behaviors requires a shared set of design considerations. This report begins by establishing some of the constraints that exist across the current bag landscape, and organizes the opportunities that any successful solution will likely need to adhere to. This includes mapping the types of transactions involving plastic bags today: point-of-sale checkout, in-store pickup, and delivery. It also means outlining the requirements for any successful new system or product: relevance to the problem at hand, ease of integration into existing retail systems, analysis of environmental consequences, and readiness for implementation at scale. A New Way Home 3 Mapping a Retail Landscape in Flux Looking to History to Find Hope For the Future The context of retail bags is changing on every level. The act of getting a product home from a local Exploring the history of retail bags suggests store is experiencing disruption on two prominent that our future might be a return to the past. fronts: regulation and technology trends. The story of how we grew to become so reliant on single-use plastic bags, if reversed, could Regulations, in this arena, come in the contain the answers to making commerce form of government taxes, fees, or outright more environmentally sustainable. bans on single-use plastic bags. The early history of retail reveals Global technology trends create conditions a reality we’re trying to return to: that ask consumers to adjust their behaviors. Understanding those behavior patterns can when a purchase and a bag were illuminate opportunities for design. Retail trends, not always a package deal; when meanwhile, tell a story of technology changing the question wasn’t “Paper or the fundamentals of transactions. Brick and mortar stores are now doubling as fulfillment plastic?” but rather “How would centers, with in-store and e-commerce sales you like to get this home?” catering to faster, easier, more seamless customer experiences—all of which result in new behaviors. A New Way Home 4 Table of Contents THE BAG PROBLEM TODAY 7 No Silver Bullet Solution Currently Exists 8 The Most Common Bag Used Today 9 Examining the Single-Use Plastic Bag 12 The 3 Most Frequent Alternative Bag Options 13 The Emerging World of Biopolymers DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES 19 Aligning on the Challenge Ahead 23 Innovation Considerations EMERGING INNOVATIONS 25 A Future Already Unfolding 26 Innovative Materials 29 Reusable Models 34 Bagless Solutions A SHIFTING RETAIL REALITY 39 How Change Opens New Possibilities 40 Regulations Today: In the U.S. and Around the World 45 Bans & Fees Are Only the Beginning 47 How Technology is Redefining the In-Store Experience 49 E-Commerce on the Local Level OUR PAST IS OUR FUTURE CONCLUSION A New Way Home 5 THE BAG PROBLEM TODAY 6 EWQ No Silver Bullet Solution Currently Exists A bag is at the center of the final interaction at almost any store—be that retail, grocery, or the corner pharmacy. And the decision for consumers, if it even exists, isn’t an easy one. Even for someone wanting to make the most Given the options presently out there, the thoughtful choice possible, there is a wealth of confused consumer is not wrong. One type confusing language and conflicting information. of bag may be more environmentally friendly It’s a moment with more complicated questions to produce, but far more harmful to dispose than easy answers. “Should I use paper or of. Another is the inverse. A compostable or plastic?” “Isn’t a tote bag the most sustainable recyclable bag may end up in landfills despite choice?” “Doesn’t it all get recycled anyway?” the consumer’s best efforts, rendering it just as bad or worse than a single-use plastic bag. Without clear guidance, people rely on a hunch or a half-truth to make their decision. Then they The truth is, there is no silver bullet among existing make it hundreds of more times each year. bag choices today. Instead, there are tradeoffs. A New Way Home 7 The Most Unless consumers carry a purchase Common Bags out by hand, they are almost certainly Used Today using one of these 5 bag varieties. When you head out for a shopping trip, bags are While single-use retail plastic bags are the industry so ubiquitous that you may not even notice how standard, consumers are increasingly trying often you interact with them. There are bags to make eco-friendly bag choices, or are being throughout the store to carry your items to the forced to make other choices due to regulation. checkout counter. At the register, the cashier Paper is the common alternative; retail stores may give you a choice of what kind of bag you across New York began to migrate to paper bags want to transport your purchases home: paper after a state-wide ban on plastic bags in March or plastic? Maybe you brought your own bag or before ultimately being reversed due to public tote from home. There is a seemingly endless health concerns. Reusable bags, whether thicker combination of bag sizes and materials. plastic woven ‘bags for life’ or cotton totes, are also gaining popularity. A 2019 Shelton Group The number of bags produced each year is survey reported that 38% of U.S. respondents staggering. Plastic is, by far, the most abundant bring their own bags to grocery stores, and 24% material in circulation. The Environmental bring their own bags for non-grocery purchases.3 Protection Agency stated that in 2015 there were 4.1 million tons of plastic bags, sacks, and wraps generated in the U.S.1 If you distribute AMONG U.S. SHOPPERS that weight across the U.S. population, that would amount to an average of 390 bags per BRING THEIR person! Most of these bags are single-use, with OWN BAGS TO an average working life of about 12 minutes 38% GROCERY STORES before getting tossed out (although some do 2 get a second life as garbage bin liners, etc). BRING THEIR OWN BAGS FOR NON-GROCERY 24% PURPOSES SINGLE-USE REUSABLE BIODEGRADABLE PAPER COTTON PLASTIC PLASTIC PLASTIC / CANVAS A New Way Home I THE BAG PROBLEM TODAY 8 Examining the Single-Use Plastic Bag The production and recovery realities of the single-use plastic bag reveals the reasons for its increased regulation. Easy to scale, cheap to make INDUSTRY REVENUE OF PLASTIC BAG AND POUCH MANUFACTURING IN THE U.S. Retail single-use plastic bags are commonly made BILLION (USD) of polyethylene, a plastic sourced from fossil fuels. 12 In their creation, fossil-fuel-derived plastic bags contribute to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Once created, a bag will persist for 10 hundreds of years causing harm multiple times over.