It has been quite the year so far, as we dive into peak season find out what we have been up to.
Preparing For The Future Of Packaging
Packaging regulation is evolving. Is your business ready?
From recyclability and recycled content to reuse and reducing unnecessary packaging, new requirements are putting greater focus on how retailers manage packaging.
Our latest blog looks at the key priorities across pEPR and PPWR, where they overlap, and the practical steps retailers can take now to prepare.
How Circular Are Your Returns?
Circularity is firmly on the agenda, but how does your approach compare? Our Circularity Index benchmarks retailers across strategy, operations, value recovery, and sustainability and impact, revealing where progress is being made and where opportunities remain.
Discover what separates established circularity programmes from the leaders turning returns into greater commercial and environmental value.
Lets Make It Clear
Every return tells a story, and what happens next could make or break your margins. Returns management and reverse logistics are often treated as the same thing, but they do very different jobs. One looks after the customer experience, from authorisation and collection to inspection and refund.
The other drives the bigger picture, deciding whether returned stock is restocked, refurbished, resold, recycled or responsibly disposed of.
Get both working together and returns stop being a cost to absorb. They become a chance to recover value, reduce waste and build lasting customer loyalty.
Ready to turn returns into a competitive advantage? Read the full article to see how an integrated approach can strengthen your returns strategy.
Making The News
New research from ReBound Returns and ASC’s Circularity Index shows that half of retailers write off, destroy or discard between 6% and 40% of returned items.
Most are trying to do better: 88% measure the environmental impact of their returns. But 44% still divert half or less of their returned stock through circular routes, and only 27% divert more than three-quarters.
The stakes are rising. Since 19 July 2026, the EU’s ESPR has banned the destruction of certain unsold goods, including apparel and footwear, for large retailers. Under the regulation, recycling counts as a form of destruction, which puts the focus on higher-value routes such as resale, reuse, repair and donation.