Circular Economy: What Role Will Plastic Play?

We are facing an epochal paradigm shift: it is now essential to efficiently exploit the resources at our disposal, both from the perspective of economic and energy savings, and because efficiency is closely linked to sustainability. But within this framework, how is the role of plastic configured?

For some time now, there has been much discussion about circular economy, renewable resources, and reuse of waste materials, but what does all this mean?

First and foremost, it is essential to unequivocally define what is meant by circular economy, namely that new paradigm of production and consumption aimed at optimizing the exploitation of natural resources and greater awareness in the use of materials, in order to make the management of waste and refuse more efficient through reconditioning and recycling of existing materials and products.

By being able to extend the useful life of manufactured goods, or alternatively of their fundamental components, it is possible to exploit all the potential value that a product carries with it, on the one hand optimizing the expenditure of material and economic resources invested in the production of virgin material, and on the other reducing CO2 emissions related to the production process of virgin material, also contributing to keeping waste and scrap to a minimum.

Unlike a linear economic approach, whereby the path of production, use, and disposal is not reversible, the use of the circular economy paradigm allows resources to be exploited for as long as possible, ensuring that we extract every “drop” of residual value during use and then, at a later stage, recover and regenerate products and materials when they reach the end of their useful life.

A natural consequence of this is the improvement of community levels of competitiveness and efficiency in the use of resources and, therefore, it is not possible to imagine excluding plastic from this continuous cycle of use and revalorization, especially in view of the importance it holds within our economy. One need only consider how the use of plastic food packaging has contributed to reducing food perishability, or the increase in thermal efficiency resulting from the use of plastics as insulating materials within the construction market.

Moreover, precisely by virtue of its nature as a new paradigm, it is essential to rethink the entire economic-production chain that involves not only the production and disposal of goods, but also the entire logistics sector, even revolutionizing the approach of consumers themselves, who are at the forefront in directing the strategic choices of market operators through their consumption preferences.

Taking into account the above, what clearly emerges is the importance that plastics will continue to hold, with appropriate evolutions, precisely by virtue of the technical and structural characteristics of the material, together with the wide range of needs they satisfy.

Plastic is a material with “intelligent performance”; it is up to us to ensure that in its evolutionary phase it has sustainable use and impact.