Unboxing and disposing of piles of packaging material is deemed a necessary evil of online shopping. But not anymore, a Finnish startup thinks it has the solution. 
Every year over 3.7 billion disposable packages are delivered to consumers in European solely from e-commerce, according to the 2014 Europe B2C Ecommerce Report. The result is vast amounts of waste, something Finnish sustainable design startup Repack believes can be avoided. The company has created packaging which is reusable up to 50 times, returnable and stylish.
— We believe that as long as reuse is made easy, people prefer it to throwawayism, says Jonne Hellgren, co-founder of Repack.
How Repack works is simple. When shopping online a customer chooses Repack as the delivery option for a small extra fee, usually around five euros. After their shopping is delivered, the customer folds the packing and places it into a post office or post box anywhere in the EU. When the webstore receives the returned packaging the user is rewarded with a voucher (usually ten euros) to use at any web store using Repack service.
According to Repack, its postal returns system reduces CO2 emissions by up to 75 percent in comparison to recycling and remaking new, disposable packaging.
Read more: Good News from Finland
