Innovation Pathways for More Circular Plastic Packaging

Plastic packaging has become ubiquitous and has provided many societal benefits, such as increased food shelf-life. Plastic packaging can have a significant environmental footprint though, including risks from microplastics. Increasing the fraction of plastic packaging that is reused or recycled could reduce these impacts, but only about 10% of plastic packaging is reused or recycled worldwide. Even in developed economies like the US or Europe, more plastic goes to landfill than to recycling.

Our research, sponsored by the Global Kaiteki Center at Arizona State University, has identified over 300 innovations in the public domain that have the potential to make the plastic packaging value chain more circular, i.e. reduce, reuse, or recycle plastic packaging. Over 140 participants from across the plastic value chain, including corporations, government, NGOs, and academics, have reviewed and provided feedback on our list of innovations. We have created a decision-model that helps stakeholders understand how specific bundles of these innovations can increase the percentage of plastic packaging that is reused and recycled.

For example, in order for plastic packaging to end up being recycled, it has to have materials and a design form that can be recyclable – innovations in polymer or biopolymer design help increase the available solution space for recyclable packaging. Further downstream, a consumer must properly dispose of the packaging in a recycling bin for it to eventually be recycled. Innovations aimed at consumer education or communication, like recycling labels, increase awareness and the likelihood the consumer will act correctly. Conversely, innovations in MRF sorting could eliminate the need for the consumer to separate recyclables at all. The presentation will share our model and summarize the insights we can derive from it.