The social life of packaging: how and why Brazilian households reuse food packaging

Although single-use food packaging is designed to be thrown away after one use, many households reuse it as part of mundane and tacit practices. However, this informal packaging reuse is hardly investigated compared to formal reuse systems like reusable packaging. Further, existing studies are mostly conducted in Western countries, where reuse and recycling are morally charged. Based on cultural anthropology and feminist theories, we argue, instead, that reusing also involves deliberate acts of revaluation and care. To analyse this ‘social life’ of disposable food packaging, we conducted in-depth interviews with 28 Brazilian households, including video documentation and pictures of household equipment. Results show that food packaging is reused, for example, for storing and passing on leftovers to neighbours or relatives, which is related to cultural logics such as the repetition of dishes. Through these interactions, disposable food packaging is transformed into a household object with not only practical but also emotional meaning. Our study contributes to the theorisation of the sociology of consumption, first, through empirically grounding the concept of culture-in-practice demonstrating that affects align the cultural and the material in domestic consumer practices. Second, we refine the concept of care-in-practice showing that packaging reuse enables the maintenance of care relationships with community members outside the homes. We conclude that recognising informal circular consumer practices – like packaging reuse – in countries of the global south can help achieve an inclusive circular economy.