Steps to Sustainable Circular Plastic Waste Supply Chain

The world today is looking forward to a sustainable future, and plastic supply chains are gaining a lot of importance in becoming circular. Increased global focus on plastic waste and pollution, coupled with negotiating the treaty at the global level for plastics pollution, make it important for industries and governments to transform plastic waste supply chains. From minimising waste and recovering every plastic product efficiently, it is about time that such a shift needs to be adopted. This blog explores the core priorities for making plastics supply chains circular and how the various changes bring about sustainability on all sides.

Steps Towards Plastic Waste Supply Chain

1. Inclusivity of Waste Workers in the Plastic Waste Supply Chain

The informal waste worker’s role is the biggest bottleneck in transforming the plastic waste supply chain. Informal workers manage nearly 58% of the collected and recovered plastic waste globally. However, informal workers are generally unsafe and unregulated. These workers are vital in the building of a circular economy but have been marginalised due to systemic neglect.

Waste workers handle most of the plastic waste and possess unique insights into the movement and flow of waste. Empowering such workers with proper wages, recognition, and safe working conditions marks an important step toward an inclusive circular economy. A shift toward a circular economy for plastics requires cooperation from companies, policymakers, and local communities to uplift the status of waste workers and integrate them into the formal supply chain.

2. Transparency in the Supply Chain for Plastic Waste

Transparency defines the circularity of the plastic waste supply chain. To that extent, manufacturers and brands have to be more aggressive in mapping the entire supply chain from production to end-of-life disposal. Knowing the sources and pathways of plastic waste improves accountability and paves the way for effective collaborations among the parties involved: suppliers, recyclers, and waste workers.

Supply chain transparency further enables organisations to track the environmental and social impacts associated with their business. This enables them to create quality relationships with suppliers and stakeholders, leading to ethical and sustainable recycling practices. More so, those businesses embracing transparency in the supply chains of their plastic waste are well positioned to advance sustainability recommendations worldwide, for example, through EPR regulations.

3. Recycling Infrastructure Upgrades

Good performance for a circular plastic waste supply chain should, therefore, depend on the grade and capacity of recycling infrastructures. Many areas do not have sufficient facilities to deal with such big outputs of plastic waste generated. Hence, recycling rates are either at low or very low levels and virgin plastics continue to be used. Investment in modernised recycling plants and technology is desperately needed to bridge the gap between plastics production and recycling.

Advanced sorting and processing technologies like chemical recycling and molecular distillation open up much higher efficiency and quality of recycled plastics. This subsequently reduces virgin material use and promotes high-quality recycled plastics in manufacturing. It offers a sustainable pathway for brands to be made EPR compliant and engage with the circular plastic waste supply chain.

4. Decrease Usage and Support Design for Recyclability

Plastic waste supply chain transformation: Above all, reducing plastic waste in the first place will be among the basic priorities. Companies are going to have to rethink their product design so that as little plastic as necessary is used, with unnecessary packaging eliminated, and products are produced from material that could actually be recycled. In the foregoing context, a shift towards eco-friendly and minimalist design orients consumers toward more sustainable choices and reduces the pressure on recycling systems.

Product design needs to be based on the principle of recyclability. Brand materials need to be chosen which can easily be separated and recycled at the end of their life cycle. Labelling and packaging, in turn, need to communicate what the products can be recycled into to the consumer to base decisions on when or how they might dispose of them.

5. Social and Environmental Impacts

For plastic waste, the supply chain has to transform with both environmental and social considerations. Marginalised communities as well as coastal areas, are dramatically affected by plastic pollution. These areas are taken as dumping grounds for plastic waste, exposing the residents to harmful chemicals and damaging the environment. There is a need to consider the interest of these communities in a circular economy for plastics rather than leaving them behind.

 Ethics in providing the rights of the worker and pollution reduction while causing as little or no harm to the environment as possible should be introduced from one supply chain to another. Further, companies have to collaborate with local organisations to create a sustainable pattern of waste management that suits the requirements of different regions.

6. Intersectoral Cooperation

This means that a circular plastic waste supply chain must be developed in collaboration with industries, governments, and NGOs. Governments should be forced to enact policies and regulations deemed to promote the recycling of plastic waste and be in a position to make business leaders accountable for their environmental impacts. The leaders in the industries must then be innovative and invest in available technologies to be implemented to steer change in such a manner.

Public-private partnerships are going to prove pivotal in advancing recycling efforts as well as efficient plastic-waste supply chains. Cooperating, the stakeholders can develop standard systems, best practices, and global guidelines that make it easier to achieve circularity. Governments and businesses also need to invest in education and awareness, creating sustainable practices while able to shift consumer behaviour toward responsible plastic use.

Role of Banyan Nation in Circular Plastic Recycling

In conclusion, the transition to a circular plastic waste supply chain will be attained through multi-front efforts, including inclusion, transparency, infrastructure upgrading, and sustainable design. As one of India’s leading players in the circular economy for plastics, Banyan Nation has been at the forefront of transformation in plastic waste supply chains. Banyan Nation’s leadership in this aspect has proved that plastic recycling can be socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable, hence crucial in the world’s effort against plastic pollution.