Securing recycling material flows for the circular economy

Abstract

Due to a shift towards sustainability, recapturing the value of plastic materials has become of great importance. As the supply for plastic materials is not rising at the same rate as the demand, resource scarcity and higher material prices challenge market players. However, many manufacturers still follow a linear business model, in which the moment a resource is fed into the economy the resource will eventually be lost. The concept of circular economy (CE) provides an opportunity to shift from such linear resource flows to circular ones, thereby circulating products and materials more frequently. CE is defined as a system in which every part of a product is considered valuable until its end of life. The US market especially offers a great opportunity to implement CE principles due to its size and potential to become a leading global supplier of secondary plastics. This paper addresses the lack of a framework for analyzing and securing plastic material flows in a CE in the context of the US plastic recycling market.