Avoiding Plastic Waste by Using Digital Technologies: Developing an innovative, sustainable business model using modern-day digital technologies such as IoT, sensors, or big data

Abstract

Today a world without plastic seems unimaginable. Something that was praised as an innovation after the Second World War is now becoming a burden to the environment, as is reflected in the ever-increasing pollution of oceans and nature. New concepts such as circular economy are needed in order to move away from a linear and towards a circular approach. Materials would be reused, reduced, or recycled to close the cycle of resource utilisation. Existing information technologies might be exploited to achieve this aim. At the moment, however, the focus concentrates on the technologies themselves, such as big data, Internet of Things and RFID, rather than developing economic, sustainable business models based on a technology. Consumers, on the other hand, would be willing to shop without packaging if this were possible in their preferred retailers. Reasons for this are environmental consciousness as well as the possibility to buy exactly required quantities. As part of this master's thesis, a business model was developed that aims to avoid plastic waste using existing information technologies. The business model is the result of a Design Thinking workshop conducted with potential consumers, people from the food industry and technical experts. The business model, which is designed to avoid plastic waste during grocery shopping by means of RFID-enabled containers, was validated in a first iteration with experts from the retail industry and technical disciplines....