Mapping Facets of Circularity: Going Beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Agri-Food Supply Chains

Vlajić, Jelena; Cunningham, Eoin; Hsiao, Hsin‐I; Smyth, Beatrice; Walker, Tim

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-3791-9_2

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Vlajic et al proposed the 8R concept to manage food packaging waste in the agri-business sector [ 73 ]. By including principles like rethink, redesign, reduce, replace, reuse, repurpose, recycle, and recover, agri-businesses are actively advancing circularity through the adoption of recycled PET (rPET).…”

Section: Pet Management In a Circular Economy Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Recycled by Catalytic Glycolysis: A Bridge toward Circular Economy Principles

Enache,

Grecu,

Samoila

2024

Materials

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Plastic pollution has escalated into a critical global issue, with production soaring from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to 400.3 million metric tons in 2022. The packaging industry alone accounts for nearly 44% of this production, predominantly utilizing polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Alarmingly, over 90% of the approximately 1 million PET bottles sold every minute end up in landfills or oceans, where they can persist for centuries. This highlights the urgent need for sustainable management and recycling solutions to mitigate the environmental impact of PET waste. To better understand PET’s behavior and promote its management within a circular economy, we examined its chemical and physical properties, current strategies in the circular economy, and the most effective recycling methods available today. Advancing PET management within a circular economy framework by closing industrial loops has demonstrated benefits such as reduced landfill waste, minimized energy consumption, and conserved raw resources. To this end, we identified and examined various strategies based on R-imperatives (ranging from 3R to 10R), focusing on the latest approaches aimed at significantly reducing PET waste by 2040. Additionally, a comparison of PET recycling methods (including primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary recycling, along with the concepts of “zero-order” and biological recycling techniques) was envisaged. Particular attention was paid to the heterogeneous catalytic glycolysis, which stands out for its rapid reaction time (20–60 min), high monomer yields (>90%), ease of catalyst recovery and reuse, lower costs, and enhanced durability. Accordingly, the use of highly efficient oxide-based catalysts for PET glycolytic degradation is underscored as a promising solution for large-scale industrial applications.

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Section: Pet Management In a Circular Economy Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By including principles like rethink, redesign, reduce, replace, reuse, repurpose, recycle, and recover, agri-businesses are actively advancing circularity through the adoption of recycled PET (rPET). This shift has prompted packaging producers to offer products with up to 100% rPET content [ 73 ].…”

Section: Pet Management In a Circular Economy Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Recycled by Catalytic Glycolysis: A Bridge toward Circular Economy Principles

Enache,

Grecu,

Samoila

2024

Materials

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The 3Rs and Industrial Ecology

Shah,

Che Mat,

Ibrahim

et al. 2024

Industrial Ecology

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The social impacts of circular economy: disclosing epistemological stances and methodological practices

Iofrida,

Spada,

Gulisano

et al. 2024

Environ Dev Sustain

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The essence of circular economy is about closing the loop of material flows by reducing, reusing, recovering and recycling, ensuring the economic prosperity without any detriment for the environment. However, few information is available about the contribution of circular systems to the social dimension of sustainability (such as well-being, quality of life), how these aspects are evaluated and why they are deemed as important. The purpose of this study is to review those scientific studies that dealt with the social sustainability evaluations of circular systems to highlight new aspects: not only which are the most applied methodologies, which impact categories and indicators are mostly taken into account, but, above all, which is the most diffused epistemological position underlying the evaluation of social aspects of circularity. This last aspect is often disregarded but of utmost importance because it shapes the approaches and procedures choice, and legitimate and justify the insights provided: indeed, they can be the most diverse when dealing with social sciences, which are multiparadigmatic sciences. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have so far emerged that directly investigate the epistemological basis of social impacts within the circular economy. A systematic and hermeneutic review of the scientific literature has been led through a two steps method. The first step, dedicated to search and acquisition, consisted in a standardized replicable process called Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). In a second phase, a hermeneutic review has been conducted on the selected publications. Among the 42 studies reviewed, 7 papers were framed within the post-positivism paradigms, while 83,3% were based on interpretivist paradigms, showing how it is difficult to find consensus on standardized quantification methods for social impacts in circular economy studies. The most recurring qualitative methods relied on personal interpretations, perceptions or observations.

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Mapping Facets of Circularity: Going Beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Agri-Food Supply Chains

Cited by 6 publications

References 65 publications

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Recycled by Catalytic Glycolysis: A Bridge toward Circular Economy Principles

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Recycled by Catalytic Glycolysis: A Bridge toward Circular Economy Principles

The 3Rs and Industrial Ecology

The social impacts of circular economy: disclosing epistemological stances and methodological practices

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