In the Asia-Pacific region, Circular Economy Asia has launched the Asia Agreement on Plastics and Packaging. The signatories have a number of targets to end the use of packaging dumps by 2050. The Asian Plastics Packaging Agreement (APPA) states that the entire supply chain of the plastics industry is absolutely secure and that this can only be guaranteed by a certifiable supply chain. The ban has called into question the global waste supply chain and has put many interest groups in crisis because of their heavy reliance on China for waste management. Each year, the EU exported three million tonnes of plastics to China. In the absence of alternative export markets today, it should therefore encourage the EU to reconsider its consumption, production and management of plastic waste. [3] Large-scale recycling is a relatively new phenomenon. Before recycling became popular, packaging waste was traditionally buried or incinerated in landfills. Although both are still widespread, landfilling is now considered a last resort – it is at the bottom of the European waste hierarchy with the same incinerator above it.
A shift begins from a linear economy with „taking, production, waste,“ where materials are used only once before disposal, to a circular economy that minimizes the use of raw materials, energy and water, and converts materials into new products instead of simply discarding them. „We wanted to see what was possible with the worst entries and we were able to create a fully usable prototype,“ says Graeme Smith, Director of Sustainability at Mondi Consumer Packaging. This concept project highlights the potential of what could be produced if high-quality pre-sorted materials are used as inputs. Better waste collection mechanisms and a focus on packaging designed for recycling will improve this process and help close the sustainable development loop. In India, according to the Indian Central Pollution Control Board, there are about 30,000 plastics manufacturers, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is a good assumption that many do not follow volunteers or other processes that seek to stop leaks into the environment. This scenario is repeated in all Asian countries. Other Pioneer projects, currently supported by CEMs, are underway and are being led by different stakeholders throughout the plastics value chain. Mondi is involved in three other Pioneer projects in progress: Project Barrier; Sea project and the Holy Grail project. Project Barrier focuses on developing guidelines for flexible recyclable plastic packaging in the future. Project Sea analyzes waste streams within a region to understand where waste accumulates at the end of its life.
Project Holy Grail develops digital tracer and watermark to enable recyclers to quickly automate the identification of plastic types and facilitate recycling to support a circular economy. The Asian Plastics Packaging Agreement is a simple roadmap for a sustainable and circular plastics and packaging industry. It focuses on five key commitments: Operation Clean Sweep is a voluntary agreement to stop the leakage of plastic pallets into the environment. This product stewardship program was developed in collaboration between the American chemistry plastics division and the Plastics Industry Association. It has also been supported by the British Plastics Federation and Plastics Europe. This is a very detailed document that provides excellent advice for securing logistics and supply chain when manufacturing and transporting plastic pallets. Unfortunately, this is a voluntary agreement. Recycling with post-consumer materials in the worst conditions The first phase of the project successfully produced a prototype with at least 20% post-consumer waste, a flexible pouch for non-food applications such as dishwasher or washing detergents. The origin of the post-consumer waste used was c