Technological Challenges and Opportunities to Plastics Valorization in the Context of a Circular Economy in Europe

Felix Carl Schultz () and Robert Jaroslav Reinhardt
Additional contact information
Felix Carl Schultz: Department of Economic Ethics, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany
Robert Jaroslav Reinhardt: Sustainable Business Consultancy & Research, 53173 Bonn, Germany

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-10

Abstract: The transition to a fully-fledged circular economy (CE) has proven to be challenging for many industries. Despite possible competitive advantages of moving industries towards CE activities, their practical implementation is still limited. This communication article delivers ad interim an identification of technological challenges and opportunities for the European plastics industries to facilitate circularity ambitions. In applying the qualitative-empirical Gioia-method utilizing the GABEK-WinRelan tool, specific technological challenges and opportunities for plastics industries were identified. Major findings indicate that technological challenges for plastics are predominantly seen in (C1) secondary material contamination; (C2) recycling processing issues; (C3) production processing issues; (C4) production material quality issues; and (C5) end-product quality issues, while the opportunities lie in (O1) effective secondary material management; (O2) innovation for chemical recycling; (O3) innovation for production and processability; (O4) innovative materials; and (O5) innovative end-products. This article contributes to the contemporary debate of CE challenges and opportunities to plastics valorization by highlighting the promising role of chemical recycling on a monomer-level as a key facilitator to a circular plastics economy. Further, it was found that technological transitions must be coupled with compatible market incentive mechanisms guided by effective institutional structures.

Keywords: circular economy; plastics; innovation; challenges; opportunities; recycling; chemical recycling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3741/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3741/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3741-:d:1072381

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().