PR3: The Global Alliance to Advance Reuse

Single-use packaging is a primary cause of the plastic crisis, a major contributor to the climate crisis, and a critical threat to human health and the environment. We seek a world in which reuse is the norm and single-use is the exception.

In partnership with others, we created PR3: The Global Alliance to Advance Reuse to accelerate the scaling of reuse systems around the world. PR3 is unique amongst global plastics initiatives in focusing on the standards that will support reuse for the long haul, rather than developing proprietary or one-off programs.

Over four years, drawing on input from across the value chain, PR3 created system design standards to guide creation of large-scale, interoperable reuse systems. RESOLVE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a standards development organization and is now seeking American National Standard designation for PR3 standards. PR3 is convening a consensus body, with representatives from industry, government, and civil society, to refine and approve the standards and is accepting applications for its Reusable Packaging System Standards Panel.

Even as they are being refined, PR3’s standards are informing the creation of reuse systems around the world. We are core partners of the Asia Reuse Consortium and Reuse Seattle, and we are working to embed standards in more city-level reuse systems around the world, collaborating with Perpetual in the U.S., Zero Waste Europe in the E.U., and others.

Like many businesses, activists, and academics, PR3 believes reuse and reuse standards must be a central fixture of the Global Plastics Treaty being developed now by the intergovernmental negotiating committee on Plastic Pollution under the United Nations Environment Programme. Read our recommendations here.