For those working in the reuse sector, the Reuse Economy Expo is unlike any other trade fair. This event is one of the few forums entirely dedicated to helping the Reuse Economy grow.
The 2026 edition confirmed a major shift in the conversation. For many years, sector stakeholders focused on the environmental, economic, and local benefits of reuse. Today, as political ambitions become more defined, particularly through the new European regulation for packaging (PPWR) and other circular economy legislation, a new question is emerging: what is needed for reuse systems to scale effectively?
Moving from “Why” to “How”
At this year's trade fair, discussions moved beyond the relevance of reuse, and towards the conditions required to make it work. Topics such as standardisation, infrastructure, governance, traceability, and quality took centre stage. Behind each of these topics lies a common concern: how can we make actors, territories, and systems that are currently developing at different speeds work together effectively? The common vision for the transition ahead is centered around harmonisation, interaction and compatibility.
This issue can be decisive for the future of reuse in Europe. The targets established by European legislation will require volumes, logistical performance, and levels of cooperation that go far beyond the early frameworks the first initiatives were built on. The challenge now is to better understand how a shared European infrastructure could support the circulation of packaging and products at scale, and with sufficient efficiency.
This mission strongly resonates with the work being done through Interpool. From the start, the project has been built around the hypothesis that the success of reusable glass packaging in Europe is likely to depend not only on the performance of individual national systems, but on their ability to interact with one another. Supply chains for beverages and food products extend far beyond national borders - yet reuse schemes are still largely designed at national or regional levels. As a result, a growing gap emerges between the way in which markets are organised and how reuse systems are structured.
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Interpool's recurring presence in discussions and at the stage of Reuse Economy Expo 2026 is not a coincidence: it reflects the fact that these issues are now at the heart of conversations across Europe. Interoperability is no longer a technical topic. It is recognised as a key factor that is needed to understand the practical implementation of the scaling of reuse systems.
Speakers in Paris, some of them representing core partners of Interpool, highlighted that the main challenge has shifted from increasing reuse volumes, to making systems work well together. This goes beyond the packaging itself: it also includes collection and washing infrastructures, traceability mechanisms, quality standards, and the governance and financial models needed to make the entire ecosystem operate coherently.
The new challenge: interoperability across borders
This intersection between systems is precisely where Interpool focuses its efforts. Bringing together partners from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, the project explores the technical, organisational, and regulatory conditions needed for cross-border glass reuse to happen. Its ambition is not to promote a single model, but rather to understand how different systems can become compatible with each other while preserving their local specificities.
The 2026 edition of Reuse Economy Expo highlighted an important milestone in the sector's continued development. It demonstrated that the European debate is increasingly shifting from proving the value of reuse towards understanding and developing the structures needed for broader deployment across Europe. Interpool contributes to this ambition by investigating the conditions under which this can be achieved.