Survey Shows Consumers Want Plastic-Free Shopping Options and Would Even Pay a Tax to Help Reduce Single-Use Trash

New chemical recycling process preserves material performance without downgrading. Sustainability is becoming more important to consumers. As a result, manufacturers and engineers are beginning to look for more ways to build sustainability into the life cycle of products. One concept gaining traction is the circular economy. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting a circular economy is one that focuses on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. For products made from commodity plastics, a transition toward a more circular economy could mean less packaging, a transition from nonrecyclable materials such as composites or multi-materials to more recyclable alternatives, and an increased use of recycled materials.

What was considered as a good to have, is increasingly becoming a must have. And this rings true for organizations across the globe, especially as the conversation around topics such as sustainability, circular economy, and ESG metrices are gaining steam. Governments, environmental agencies, industry associations, among many others, are all moving to tackle this new reality of depleting resources, coupled with climate crisis, that we are faced with today. Everybody is thinking about it. Everybody is talking about it. Many are even doing something about it. What is missing, however, is bringing them all at the same table, says Dr. Trevor Thornton, a senior lecturer at Australia’s Deakin University. In an insightful conversation with Kamal Raj, who leads Solid Waste Management as part of the Green Initiatives team at Infosys, discussed with Thornton a range of topics from waste management, to circular economy. “It was Carl Sagan that said that waste is stuff that we are too stupid to use,” says Thornton, who believes that people across sections of the ecosystem, such as governments, businesses, industry associations and conservationists should work together to figure out how to actually manage waste better. “It was Carl Sagan that said that waste is stuff that we’re too stupid to use.” Thornton, who teaches at the Faculty of Science Engineering & Built Environment, School of Life & Environment Sciences, believes that at an organizational front some companies are looking at the aspect of circularity, and are realizing that this is the way of the future. “Some companies are saying that, yes, there is that environmental and social aspect of doing things. But they’re also realistic to know that there’s the economic benefits associated with it,” he says, adding that they are starting to use the principles of circular economy, and some are even entering…