01.03.23
THE NEW REUSE ECONOMY: WHAT’S WORKING (AND NOT WORKING) ON THE QUEST FOR A PACKAGING WASTE-FREE FUTURE
While recycling and lightweighting packaging strategies are helpful, they still align more with a linear rather than circular economy. Here, Upstream CEO Matt Prindiville lays out his organization’s vision for a truly plastic waste-free future.
Achieving a world free of plastic waste is still very much a pipe dream. It remains a key driver of global pollution and continues to grow relentlessly, as efforts to curb it fall short. Earlier this year, a study from OECD found that only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled around the world, while 22 percent is mismanaged. Much of what isn’t recycled or captured effectively falls into the category of single-use packaging.