Closing the material loop for industrial plastics

Important results from the project

The initial objective of the project was to develop a closed loop for industrial plastic bigbags (FIBCs). The main finding from the analysis in stage one was that increasing circularity of bigbags and any other industrial plastic packaging is not possible without innovating the whole system for how industrial packaging is used in Sweden. Therefore, stage two will include 1-2 other industrial plastic packaging types as case studies and will work with three different dimensions to achieve system innovation: policy and regulation, business models, as well as recycling infrastructure.

Expected long term effects

The following results were also achieved according to plan in stage one: Mapping of the material streams for FIBCs (origin, quantity, quality of materials) Mapping of the industries which use FIBCs and how they use it First draft of a logistics model for closed loop recycling First draft of a business plan Involvement of additional stakeholders and strengthen the partnership Knowledge transfer to other industries. Another important result was that the project team realized the potential for developing circular value chains for industrial packaging is bigger than expected.

Approach and implementation

The knowledge created in stage one of this project was collected through: Access to official statistics Collection of information from different actors through discussions and interviews. Discussions with the group of project partners were carried out continuously throughout the project. In addition, 16 other relevant stakeholders outside the project partnership contributed with information through interviews, emails and discussions. Desktop research and a literature review was also carried out to get a better understanding of the framework for using packaging in Sweden