Abstract
The pace to achieving a sustainable plastics economy remains noticeably slow. This could be due to a lack of understanding of the role and importance of stakeholder dynamics in the plastic packaging system. Therefore, this study aims to unpack and assess the role of stakeholders in improving the plastics recycling rate and circularity in the UK, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drinks bottles value chain as a case study. Via the theoretical lens of stakeholder theory the study identifies and groups the stakeholders in the PET drinks bottles value chain, and tries to make sense of, and analyse, their complex interactions via the use of the Complex Value Optimisation for Resource Recovery (CVORR) systems thinking approach. This integrated approach reveals, that even though external stakeholders (e.g. NGOs, trade associations) engage with internal stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, consumers, investors), and vice versa, at different levels and scales in promoting the circularity in the PET drink bottles value chain, there is a strong drive in incentivising the production and consumption processes. This is driven by the significant lobbying power of internal stakeholders operating upstream of the PET bottles value chain (i.e. producers and brand owners), that is supported by financial institutions, and which, strongly influences national and local government policies and decision-making processes. Meanwhile, the waste management processes are short-sighted, being unable to gain improved momentum and increase the PET bottles recycling rates. This dynamic conceals, and somewhat retains, the prevailing resistance in removing the infrastructural, regulatory and technological lock-ins. A collaboration between internal and external stakeholders is paramount to sustainably managing PET drinks bottles in the UK and achieving a transition to a sustainable circular plastics economy. Creating a level playing field and fostering a closer collaboration between all stakeholders involved in the system can aid the development of new value networks, and support new policy interventions that can improve circularity in the plastic packaging sector.
Highlights
The increasing production and consumption of plastics used in the food packaging sector, and the subsequent plastic packaging waste generation and mismanagement have raised global concerns and highlighted the need to take measures to reduce, remediate and prevent plastic waste and pollution (Iacovidou et al, 2020)
The search strategy was designed and implemented in two stages as follows: 1) selection and use of keywords in scientific databases, such as Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, to source information related to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials, components and products (e.g. “PET”, “plastics”, “PET bottles”, “packaging”, “beverage bottles”, and “water bottles”), lifecycle processes (e.g. “production”, “recycling”, “processing”, “mechanical pre-processing”, and “consumption”), type of stakeholders (e.g. “petrochemicals industry”, “plastic producers”, “trade association”, “NGOs”, “regulators”, “customers”, “government”, “authorities” and “organisation”); and 2) information collation and mapping related to the communication network of external stakeholders related to PET bottles recycling value chain in the UK, i.e. partnerships, collaborations, and funding relationships, by which we identified and cross-checked the existence of stakeholders that were not identified with the use of keywords
In the upstream part of the PET drinks bottles value chain, the PET pellets/ preforms/ bottles producers could be the suppliers to drinks manufacturers, whilst drinks manufacturers could be the producers to brand owners when the analysis is on their in-between relationship; yet all of them can be grouped as shareholders when looking at the entire upstream system
Summary
The increasing production and consumption of plastics used in the food packaging sector, and the subsequent plastic packaging waste generation and mismanagement have raised global concerns and highlighted the need to take measures to reduce, remediate and prevent plastic waste and pollution (Iacovidou et al, 2020). There has been a series of plastic industry efforts and government interventions, to boost plastics circularity, and decrease their impact on the environment (Iacovidou et al, 2020, Evans et al, 2020). In the UK, there is a set of strategic plans, frameworks and actions published by the UK government that aim to tackle and address plastic waste and pollution, such as the 25 Year Environment Plan (HM Government, 2018a), the Resources and Waste Strategy (HM Government, 2018b), and the UK Plastics Pact (WRAP, 2018). There is little research that has directly addressed this objective (Iacovidou et al, 2020)
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