A circular economy seeks to maintain the value of products and close material loops in industrial systems, to minimize waste and reduce raw material and energy inputs. Since the beginning of 2022, there have been several large reports on the progress and steps necessary to turn the current linear economy into a circular one. Reports published by Circle Economy, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Zero Waste Europe published in January and February 2022 discuss steps needed by policymakers at all levels of government and stakeholders throughout the global supply chain to move towards circularity. The European Union and individual nations are acting on the messages raised in these reports through large circular economy regulations (FPF reported).
Every year for the last five years Circle Economy, a non-profit research organization, has published a circularity gap report in conjunction with the meeting of the World Economic Forum. In the 2022 report, Circle Economy found that 8.6% of global materials were being recycled or reused in 2020 (the last year with available data). Despite increasing attention to the circular economy and other sustainability goals, the percentage of material recycled or reused globally went down from 9.1% in 2018. The authors state, “our take-make-waste economy consumes 100 billion tonnes of materials a year and wastes over 90%.”
To help reduce the circularity gap, Circle Economy published a “roadmap of 21 circular solutions [that] businesses, cities and nations can [use to] reduce resource extraction and use by 28%, therefore cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 39% and getting the world on a 1.5-degree pathway.” Spread across six societal needs (communications, healthcare, consumables, mobility, nutrition, and housing), solutions include reducing chemical and plastics production (FPF reported, also here), creating durable and repairable consumer products like kitchen appliances, and reducing excess consumption including food packaging use (FPF reported).
In the run-up to the United Nations meeting to discuss a global plastics treaty (FPF reported), the OECD and Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) respetively published reports discussing the circularity of plastics generally and of PET specifically.
According to the OECD, almost half of all global plastic waste is generated by the 38 countries that make up its membership, and they account for 35% of microplastic pollution. Globally, “9% of plastic waste was recycled, 19% was incinerated and almost 50% went to sanitary landfills. The remaining 22% was disposed in uncontrolled dumpsites, burned in open pits or leaked into the environment.” Even though there are bans and taxes on single-use plastics in more than 120 countries, the OECD noted that these types of actions are “mainly effective in reducing leakage via littering, rather than restraining overall consumption of plastics.” Instead of relying on bans and taxes alone, they suggest applying a combination of policies across three areas, (i) closing leakage pathways (e.g. banning individual items; FPF reported), (ii) creating incentives for recycling and sorting at source (e.g. extended producer responsibility and deposit schemes, FPF reported), and (iii) restraining demand while designing for circularity (e.g. regulating hazardous substances, removing fossil-fuel subsidies; FPF reported).
ZWE’s report specifically investigated the circularity of polyethylene terephthalate (PET, CAS 25038-59-9) bottles in Europe. The organization found that after collecting, sorting, and washing, about 50% of the PET bottles sold in Europe get recycled in some way, but only 17% currently return to the market as recycled PET (rPET) in bottles. The rest is “downcycled” into other forms of less recyclable packaging, textiles, or other products. With an increase in bottle collection, prioritizing bottle-to-bottle recycling streams, and switching to transparent PET instead of opaque or colored ZWE predicts PET circularity could increase to between 61 and 75% in Europe, though they estimate around 50% is more likely.
While a higher level of recycled content is better from a resource-use perspective, there are some health concerns from chemical contamination in recycled plastics that come into contact with foods. The presence of contaminants in the original PET bottles plus contaminants entering the plastic during the recycling process can over time concentrate potentially hazardous chemicals in bottles made from rPET (FPF reported, also here). According to a recent review, 150 chemicals have been measured to migrate from PET bottles into drinks (FPF reported). The authors of the review made several suggestions for improving the safety of the rPET value chain and ultimately concluded that “greater transparency and improved communication in the entire production-consumption-management system is needed.”
Reference
Circle Economy (January 28, 2022). “The circularity gap report – 2022.”
Zero Waste Europe (February 16, 2022). “How circular is PET?”
OECD (February 22, 2022). “Global plastics outlook: economic drivers, environmental impacts and policy options.”
Read more
Darrel Moore (February 23, 2022). “9% of global plastic waste is recycled while 22% is ‘mismanaged’ – OECD.” Circular
Norbert Sparrow (February 22, 2022). “OECD Report Aims to ‘Bend the Plastic Curve’.” Plastics Today
Mayuri Ghosh, et al. (January 18, 2022). “How national policies can accelerate the transition to a reuse economy.” World Economic Forum
Google (March 2022). “Closing the plastics circularity gap: Full report.” (pdf)
