Accelerating Plastic Circularity: A Critical Assessment of the Pathways and Processes to Circular Plastics

Achieving plastic circularity is imperative to using plastics without adverse effects. Today, only 9% of global plastic waste is recycled, signifying the need for more substantial advancements to accelerate our progress toward achieving plastic circularity. This article contributes to our collective efforts to accelerate plastic circularity by critically assessing the state-of-the-art, gaps, and outlook of the pathways and processes to circular plastics. It employs qualitative methods to derive new insights that empower scholars and practitioners to prescribe effective strategies to shape the future of plastic circularity and its research agenda. This article concludes that today's circularity pathways for plastics are not economically viable, significantly hindering their scalability and widespread adoption. It further validates that focusing on the product design and effectiveness of the available collection and sorting systems can considerably improve our progress in achieving plastic circularity.

Automated summary

Achieving plastic circularity is crucial, but only 9% of global plastic waste is recycled, indicating the need for substantial progress. This article critically assesses the current state, gaps, and future outlook of circular plastic pathways and processes, contributing to the acceleration of plastic circularity. Employing qualitative methods, it provides new insights that empower scholars and practitioners to develop effective strategies for shaping the future of plastic circularity. The article concludes that current circularity pathways for plastics are not economically viable, hindering scalability and adoption, and highlights the importance of product design and collection systems in achieving plastic circularity.