ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain.
Sec. Circular Economy
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1531428
This article is part of the Research TopicCircular Economy in Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Practices and Strategies in the Manufacturing IndustryView all 3 articles
Value chain actor perceptions to enhance plastics circularity in Europe -Recommendations for future action
Provisionally accepted
- 1VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo, Finland
- 2School of Arts and Design, Aalto University, Otakaari, Ostrobothnia, Finland
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The transition to a circular plastic economy is a priority area in the European policy landscape. This shift will require increasing plastic waste recycling and market uptake of recycled plastics. However, the plastics industry is still dominated by linear business models with little focus on circularity. Currently, the poor recyclability at end-of-life for plastic products, and underdeveloped markets for recycled plastics, often leave incineration and export as the main waste management options. This study investigates the barriers currently hindering widespread plastics circularity and presents solutions to overcome them, aiming to generate recommendations that would support the transition towards plastics circularity in Europe. The focus of the analysis is on non-packaging plastic waste from the automotive, construction and electronics sectors. Data collection was implemented in the form of semi-structured interviews and workshops conducted as a part of the EU Horizon 2020 NONTOX project. The results show a need for high-impact policies that facilitate the growth of the EU’s plastics recycling sector and support the demand of recycled plastics, to enable closing of the material loops, finally enhancing plastics circularity in Europe. The recommendations include enhancing the collection and recycling efficiency, supporting the expansion of the recycling capacity, enhancing the positioning of emerging recycling technologies, enhancing recyclability of products, and supporting the demand and markets for recycled plastics. Not only would this support the transition to plastics circularity, it would prevent loss of materials due to incineration and export of plastic waste, while also contributing to EU’s self-sufficiency for raw materials.
Keywords: Plastics circularity, Non-packaging plastics, Circular economy, Recycling, Policy recommendations, Stakeholder interaction
Received: 20 Nov 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 zu Castell-Rüdenhausen and Marttila. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Malin Camilla zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo, Finland
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