Strategic Actions for Packaging Waste Management and Reduction

Abstract

Following the growing trend of packaging waste quantities, it has become more and more actual the issue of the impact of this waste flow over environment and human health, as a consequence of inappropriate disposal methods and technologies. For this purpose, waste hierarchy must be applied, focusing on waste prevention, prepare for reuse, recycling and recovery, while waste landfilling should be the last available option of management, which corresponds to the highest level of loss and denaturation of resources. The food packaging is not only useful for food protection, but it is key element to attract consumers and to impact their consumption behavior. Food packaging should grow the value of the product that is packed, but also must meet certain requirements for recycling when packaging becomes waste. This is the reason why proper and efficient management of packaging waste is important for environment and human health. The problems generated by the packaging waste have determined governments to take measures for policy improvement, focusing also on other options of management, such as reduction of unnecessary packaging, promotion of packaging reuse and use of alternative packaging materials, in addition to growing the recycling efficiency and gradual ban of single use packaging. This paper presents strategic actions for packaging waste management and reduction, as measures to reduce negative impact of waste on environment and human health, in the context of circular economy. Therefore, reduction of packaging waste inputs to the environment must be tackled as a global multidisciplinary approach priority.