Fully-recyclable plastic packages by 2020?

Anna is pictured with Anders Persson, Managing Director for Sysav Utveckling AB.

STEPS master student Anna Svantesson presents her work on the Swedish Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry target of fully-recyclable plastic packaging by 2022, at Sysav today.

FMCG includes a network of different actors, from manufacturers of plastic packaging, to recyclers. The study suggests that the industry’s goal encourages cooperation and technical development. However, the diversity of actors in the network also entails competitiveness and a lack of knowledge exchange. One of the consequences is that, despite a common goal, the operative work is mostly performed by individual companies or actors. The study concludes that the lack of cooperation, together with the inadequate political interventions around recyclable plastic packaging, will make the target difficult to achieve by 2022.

Anna Svantesson carried out her thesis work under the supervision of STEPS researcher Fredric Bauer at Environmental and Energy Systems Studies, Lund University, Xue Kullenius at Sysav Utveckling AB, and Madeleine Brask at Miljöbron.

Read Anna Svantesson’s thesis: Rör(l)igt mål mot ökad återvinning av plast - En studie av den svenska dagligvaruhandelns mål om materialåtervinningsbara plastförpackningar at lub.lu.se

Noomi Egan