Investigation into circular economy of plastics: The case of the UK fast moving consumer goods industry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118941Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Studies four case firms in the UK FMCG industry that commit to the UK Plastic Pact.

  • Discloses initiatives regarding plastics implemented within the UK FMCG industry.

  • Identifies motivations, barriers and enablers of CE on plastics in the industry.

Abstract

Despite the recognised importance of the issue of plastic waste and an emerging circular economy (CE) in recent years, there is a lack of comprehensive and relevant studies regarding CE and the role of plastics. This study addresses a significant gap in the literature by revealing current initiatives implemented in the UK fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry through an in-depth exploration of four case organisations that have committed to the UK Plastic Pact, a pioneering collective initiative on plastic recycling. The study discloses a variety of present initiatives within the industry including the removal of unrecyclable plastics, packaging innovation, in-store retailer schemes, and label modifications. Collaboration was concluded as an essential enabler, internally and across the industry. Fundamental barriers were identified as inadequate infrastructure to support plastics in the CE and technical implications of packaging.

Introduction

The ocean is becoming increasingly polluted by plastic waste, with 10% of global plastic pollution ending up in the world’s oceans each year (Fitzgerald, 2011). Although the properties of plastic make it an extremely versatile material, its durability however enables it to stay in our eco-system for a considerably long time. This has a severe impact on the ocean’s marine life, including accidents and harm from entanglement and ingestion, spread of invasive species across the ocean, and mass extinctions of coral (Schneider et al., 2018). Furthermore, plastics fragmented in the marine environment, known as microplastics, are not only damaging the food chain but have also been identified as an emerging source of soil pollution (Rillig, 2012; Duis and Coors, 2016) and freshwater contamination (Wagner et al., 2014), emphasising the scale of the plastics issue.

In Europe alone, 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated and of that, less than 30% of it is collected for recycling (European Commission, 2018). With the Blue Planet acting as a major catalyst of public concern, governments and businesses have begun to acknowledge the urgent need to tackle the problem. Government-enforced initiatives and legislations have been introduced, with targets set in Europe for all plastic placed on the market to be either reusable or recyclable in a cost-effective manner by 2030 (EC, 2018). To support this change, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) has gained importance on policy makers’ agendas (Brennan et al., 2015). Plastic is recognised amongst the five priority areas for progression towards circularity, released as a key movement of the resources and waste strategy for England (GOV, 2018).

The CE is also expected to promote economic growth and create a net saving for EU businesses of up to €600 billion, whilst similarly reducing environmental impacts (Kalmykova et al., 2018). Additional to governments taking action, 250 organisations have signed a global commitment to “eradicate plastic waste and pollution at the source” (NPE, 2018) through the ‘UK Plastic Pact’, a collaborative initiative led by WRAP, the Waste & Resource Action Programme charity (WRAP, 2018a). It hopes to bring together the entire plastic packaging value chain behind a common vision and an ambitious set of targets (WRAP, 2018a). Those who have signed the pact include the world’s largest packaging producers, brands, recyclers and NGOs most of which are part of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry (NPE, 2018).

The surge in attention regarding the challenge of plastic use in society has motivated this study. It is evident that the topic is highly relevant and an important agenda for multiple stakeholders.

The mission of the Plastic Pact is to accelerate the transition of the CE, with three key targets to eliminate, innovate and circulate (WRAP, 2018a). Consequently, this research investigates how organisations are applying new initiatives to achieve these targets. The following research questions were formulated to facilitate the achievement of the research aim:

  • 1.

    What are the plastic recycling initiatives currently being implemented by FMCG firms?

  • 2.

    Why do FMCG firms join NGO-led plastic recycling initiatives?

  • 3.

    How do the barriers and enablers of CE focused on plastic in the UK impact implementation by the FMCG industry?

Together, these research questions help to explore the plastic reduction initiatives currently being implemented by the UK FMCG industry, to understand the motivational factors for FMCG firms to introduce plastic-focused CE initiatives, and to identify the barriers to and enablers for implementing CE initiatives in the UK FMCG industry.

Section snippets

Literature background

This section reviews the two key streams of literature underlying this research – namely, CE in general and plastics within CE in particular.

Research methodology

This study applies a holistic, multiple case-study method proposed by Yin (2008). Using open questions, it falls under an exploratory category which helps to gain a true idea of what is happening in practice (Saunders et al., 2016). As we are exploring an under-researched phenomenon, a case study method in theory building is appropriate (Eisenhardt, 1989).

Current initiatives in plastics to transition towards a circular economy

This section focuses on the first research question, “What are the plastic recycling initiatives currently being implemented by FMCG firms?” Several initiatives were identified, including innovation, knowledge, society and CE framework, and these are discussed as below.

Initiatives included some form of innovation in all cases. The supplier case organisations focused on long-term solutions for plastic packaging within a CE context. Company B stated, “We are also looking at innovation … what we

Circular economy initiatives of plastics

This study found that there are important differences regarding CE of plastics between suppliers and retailers in the FMCG field. Despite literature finding that retailer-led collection systems are difficult to co-ordinate (Mishra et al., 2018), the retailers in this study found positive progress in recollection programmes due to direct contact and the capability of creating own waste collection structures. Moreover, the deficiencies in supporting infrastructure are actually proving to be a

Conclusion

The emergent findings have revealed plastic as a highly relevant issue for the FMCG industry, with organisations either now implementing or planning initiatives to tackle the environmental issue by using the CE concept. This study is one of the first to focus specifically on the role of plastics in CE in the context of the UK. To gain a preliminary view of the plastic sector in UK, four pioneering firms were accessed and investigated. In addition, as the topic of plastics in CE is relatively

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