1. In 2013, the industry put 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging on the market, with a total value of $260 billion.Plastic packaging volumes are expected to continue their strong growth, doubling within 15 years and more than quadrupling by 2050, to 318 million tonnes annually – more than the entire plastics industry today. 2. As packaging materials, plastics are especially inexpensive, lightweight and high performing. Plastic packaging can also benefit the environment: its low weight reduces fuel consumption in transportation, and its barrier properties keep food fresh longer, reducing food waste. The main plastic resin types and their packaging applications are as follows:
PRODUCTIVE & VALUE CHAIN
1. An example of plastic packaging productive chain would start with the synthesis of basic chemical products from nafta and natural gas. It is an extremely wide and complex chain.
2. There are three big industries that utilize plastic packaging: food, cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products. Food industry is the most important consumer of packaging. It is a heterogeneous economic sector, formed by large firms, which have great bargain power with suppliers, as well as by small producers.
1. Today, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or $80– 120 billion annually, is lost to the economy after a short first use. Only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling and only 5% of material value is retained for a subsequent use.
3.Plastic packaging generates significant negative externalities, conservatively valued by UNEP at $40 billion and expected to increase with strong volume growth in a business-as-usual scenario. the ocean is expected to contain 1 tonne of plastic for every 3 tonnes of fish by 2025.
4. Over 90% of plastics produced are derived from virgin fossil feedstocks. This represents, for all plastics (not just packaging), about 6% of global oil consumption, which is equivalent to the oil consumption of the global aviation sector. If the current strong growth of plastics usage continues as expected, the plastics sector will account for 20% of total oil consumption and 15% of the global annual carbon budget by 2050.
5. Many innovations and improvement efforts show potential, but to date these have proved to be too fragmented and uncoordinated to have impact at scale. Today’s plastics economy is highly fragmented. The lack of standards and coordination across the value chain has allowed a proliferation of materials, formats, labelling, collection schemes and sorting and reprocessing systems, which collectively hamper the development of effective markets.
PLASTIC PACKAGING OPPORTUNITIES
1. Create an effective after-use plastics economy. It provides a direct economic incentive to avoid leakage into natural systems and will help enable the transition to renewable sourced feedstock by reducing the scale of the transition.
(i) Increase the economics, quality and uptake of recycling. g. Establish a cross-value chain dialogue mechanism and develop a Global Plastics Protocol to set direction on the re-design and convergence of materials, formats, and after-use systems to substantially improve collection, sorting and reprocessing yields, quality and economics, while allowing for regional differences and continued innovation.
(ii)Scale up the adoption of reusable packaging within business-to-business applications as a priority, but also in targeted business-to-consumer applications such as plastic bags.
(iii) Scale up the adoption of industrially compostable plastic packaging for targeted applications such as garbage bags for organic waste and food packaging for closed systems where there is low risk of mixing with the recycling stream and where the pairing of a compostable package with organic contents helps return nutrients in the contents to the soil.
2. Drastically reduce the leakage of plastics into natural systems and other negative externalities.
(i) Improve after-use collection, storage and reprocessing infrastructure in high-leakage countries. Under the very best current scenarios for improving infrastructure, leakage would only be stabilized, not eliminated, implying that the cumulative total volume of plastics in the ocean would continue to increase strongly.
(ii) Increase the economic attractiveness of keeping materials in the system. Increasing the value of after-use plastic packaging reduces the likelihood that it escapes the collection system, especially in countries with an informal waste sector.
(iii) Steer innovation investment towards creating materials and formats that reduce the negative environmental impact of plastic packaging leakage.
(iv) Scale up existing efforts to understand the potential impact of substances raising concerns and accelerate development and application of safe alternatives.
3. Decouple plastics from fossil feedstocks. Creating an effective after-use economy is key to decoupling because it would, along with dematerialization levers, reduce the need for virgin feedstock. Another central part of this effort would be the development of renewable sourced materials to provide the virgin feedstock that would still be required to compensate for remaining cycle losses, despite the increased recycling and reuse.
4. The circular economy is an industrial system that is restorative and regenerative by design. It rests on three main principles: preserving and enhancing natural capital, optimizing resource yields and fostering system effectiveness.
NEW APPROACH FOR THE PLASTIC ECONOMY
1. Establish a Global Plastics Protocol and coordinate large-scale pilots and demonstration projects. Redesign and converge materials, formats and after-use systems.
2. Mobilize large-scale “moon shot” innovations. The world’s leading businesses, academics and innovators would be invited to come together and define “moon shot” innovations: focused, practical initiatives with a high potential for significant impact at scale.
3. Develop insights and build an economic and scientific evidence base. Many of the core aspects of plastic material flows and their economics are still poorly understood.
4. Engage policy-makers in the development of a common vision of a more effective system, and provide them with relevant tools, data and insights related to plastics and plastic packaging.
5. Coordinate and drive communication of the nature of today’s situation, the vision of the New Plastics Economy, best practices and insights, as well as specific opportunities and recommendations, to stakeholders acting along the global plastic packaging value chain.
(Source: World Economic Forum,Oroski,
