Barriers to the Circularity of Single-Use Plastic Food Packaging in the European Union

Abstract

Single-use plastic packaging has a crucial role in the global food system, but it also significantly contributes to plastic pollution. Environmental challenges caused by plastics have led to strategic and legislative responses by the European Union, notably concerning circular economy. The EU has set targets for recycling and recyclability of plastic packaging and the usage of recyclates. The usage of recycled plastics in food contact materials is especially challenging due to strict requirements for such materials. Polyolefins are commonly used in food packaging and currently not recycled back into food contact materials in the EU, which is why their circularity is of special interest. Mechanical recycling is the most prominent circular practice used in managing plastic packaging waste and retains most material value in circular economy. This thesis aims to examine barriers to the circularity of single-use plastic food packaging within the EU. The focus is on mechanical plastics recycling and using the recycled plastic in new high-quality applications, especially in food packaging. These barriers are examined on the levels of technology, EU regulation and the plastics recycling system. The study is done through a comprehensive literature review of EU legislation, scientific publications, and industry reports, coupled with stakeholder interviews. The literature review aims to provide a comprehensive description of the current situation of plastic food packaging recycling in the EU and identify barriers to circularity reported in the literature. The stakeholder interviews aim to provide barriers from a more practical perspective of waste collectors, plastic recyclers, and packaging converters. The result aims to provide a holistic view of the identified barriers and their connections. Economic barriers to plastic recycling include price dependency on virgin plastics and electricity, fluctuation of prices, fragmentation, and the relatively small size of the recyclate market. These factors create a market situation, in which profitability is uncertain and often poor. Economic feasibility affects recycling capacities and recyclate quality due to higher processing costs needed for quality improvement. Another systemic barrier is the complexity of the plastic pack-aging waste stream. Non-recyclable packaging and the overall heterogeneity of plastic packaging, together with contamination from collection and consumer behavior, significantly reduce the quality of recyclates and the quantity of material losses in processing. Barriers to the utilization of plastic recyclates in food packaging are mainly legislative but are rooted in the plastic pack-aging collection system. Food packaging is collected together with other packaging and its traceability through the value chain is difficult. This partly explains why no authorizations for processes recycling post-consumer polyolefins to food contact materials have been granted by EFSA. Lack of precedent and the strictness of the assessment criteria act as barriers to recyclate usage in food packaging. Overall, lack of legislative harmonization is a key barrier to in-creased circularity of single-use plastic food packaging.