The steadily increasing production of plastic causes severe environmental problems, which include the high energy demand during production, the consumption of fossil fuels and the accumulation of plastic waste in landfills and the natural environments. However, there are strategies and efforts undertaken to transform this one-way system into a closed-loop system.
This report discusses efforts to create a more circular usage of plastics, including challenges, solutions, and case-studies on regulations in a variety of countries. In the context of packaging, approaches to reduce or slow-down the demand for virgin plastic have been developed and are already applied to different extents. These strategies include the reduction of packaging weight and/or volume, the reuse of packaging, and the recycling of certain polymers. However, the development of efficient and clean recycling processes on an industrial scale is still a major challenge, although large efforts are currently undertaken to achieve these ends. The source control of potentially hazardous chemicals contributes to the difficulties in achieving efficient processes.