Sustainable packaging for supply chain management in the circular economy: A review

Abstract

Packaging enables the movement of product from its point of origin to its point of consumption and influences all other industries directly or indirectly. Despite technological advancements, increasing length of global supply chains for products has led to a simultaneous increase in the use of packaging layers and associated waste along the supply chain. Thus, packaging poses challenges and opportunities to the environment and society, with implications for supply chain costs. With growing popularity of concepts such as circular economy and sustainability, packaging and its relationship with sustainability and supply chain management in a circular economy needs to be studied. This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies done over the last 18 years with the objective to generate a greater understanding of the work done in the field of sustainable packaging in supply chain management (SPSCM). Our findings indicate SPSCM trends are aligned to circular economy concepts but have not adequately considered the interaction of the product with its packaging system. Research efforts in SPSCM are restricted to environmental and economic dimensions and are mostly concentrated in developed economies. The review identifies three main supply chain structures studied in SPSCM literature of which there has been an increased focus on fragmented portions and dyads of the supply chain with respect to packaging. The research contributes by identifying and mapping the collated literature to organizational theories that support and drive SPSCM. In particular, the institutional theory, stakeholder theory and ecological modernization theory are investigated from a SPSCM perspective. Further, the three organizational theories are used to develop a framework for circular economy to highlight future avenues for research and practice in SPSCM for a circular economy. • Systematic review of recent literature in Sustainable packaging in supply chain management for a circular economy. • Results highlight dominance of reuse and return practices of packaging. • Low focus on developing economies, social dimension and integration of product-packaging systems. • Three main supply chain structures have been addressed in the SPSCM literature. • Circular economy framework has been developed using three organizational theories and four key CE elements.