The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Sara Lindeblad Wingstrand encouraged innovative discourse at the Swiss Plastics Expo in Luzern.
Sara Lindeblad Wingstrand joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a research analyst in March 2018 after studying at the Technical University of Denmark. By January 2020 she addressed delegates of the Swiss Plastics Expo in Luzern as the think tank’s Programme Manager for Innovation in the New Plastics Economy. EPPM went to learn more.
“I’m going to talk about plastics and some of the exciting innovations,” she began, “but first take a step back and think about why we’re thinking about circular economy at all. The circular economy to us is what we work with. We’re a think tank and we think it can be the economic system of the future. Today’s linear economy simply doesn’t work – it’s hugely wasteful.”
Plastics represents one iconic case of just how wasteful we have become. With so much plastic packaging still finding its way into the environment, Lindeblad Wingstrand added that the current system is harmful in numerous ways – to the environment, the economy, and businesses. “So, let’s talk about the solutions instead,” she said. “What our economy has become is a giant conveyer belt taking resources from the earth, using them for a tiny amount of time, and just disposing them. We need a fundamentally different model – a circular economy. A restorative and regenerative economy by design.”
The New Plastics Economy aims to set the world on a path to a future where plastic never becomes waste. But what does this mean? Defining a vision of a circular economy for plastic packaging lacks specificity. Lindeblad Wingstrand explained: “It’s about eliminating problematic, unnecessary plastic packaging; switching single-use to reusable plastics wherever relevant; and getting stakeholders to think about reuse, recycling, and composting – but that’s not enough. We need all the plastic packaging we use to do this. Furthermore, we need to decouple our consumption of plastics from fossil fuels, as well as render our packaging solutions free of hazardous chemicals.”
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This, after all, was an innovation conference, so Lindeblad Wingstrand invited her audience to “push the thinking”. “We’ve been talking about recycling for years, but it’s still not working. Let’s talk about elimination. Let’s talk about reuse.”
Eliminate to accumulate
Thinking about the elimination of unnecessary packaging elements is not particularly exciting, the speaker conceded, but highly important nonetheless. “There is a lot of innovation out there to enable this,” she added, and exemplified her argument with a plastic-wrapped cucumber. New innovative packaging for this product includes an edible protein made from food by-products that maintains shelf life and eliminates the need for recycling infrastructure.
Her second example was that of a shampoo product in a bar – like soap – so the packaging again becomes unnecessary while the product maintains functionality.
Thirdly, Lindeblad Wingstrand spoke about retailers turning to local farms for in-season produce. Again, this eliminates the need for plastics packaging since the product arrives and is consumed fresh.
“These are things we are working on at the moment, but how can we think about turning these into an innovation framework? We start by asking what functionality packaging provides – protection, containment, convenience (easy to carry), and aesthetics. In the case of the cucumber – you’re rethinking the packaging; in the case of the shampoo, you’re rethinking the product to eliminate the packaging; and fresh produce eliminates the entire packaging system. That’s how we’re starting to think about innovative approaches.”
Engaging for change
Once upon a time, recycling was considered the solution – but that’s no longer the case, according to Lindeblad Wingstrand. “We can’t recycle our way out of this. So, let’s look at reuse and see how this can benefit business. One of the really exciting cases we found was in Coke. They have completely redesigned their reusable PET bottles to have the same design across brands. Think about how iconic the Coke bottle is – they changed it, enabling significant savings on logistics, washing, relabelling, and now they have this very clever deposit system that keeps the customer in the loop. This has resulted in Coke investing in expanding their reusable infrastructure – and it has proven to be the fastest growing form of packaging … Good business doing the right thing for the environment.”
The Ellen Macarthur Foundation is of course interested in looking at business benefits, as well as engaging with stakeholders in such innovation symposia. In these environments, Europe’s plastic packaging and converting experts can discuss customisation, design, and dividing the cost of multiple-use products. Packaging need no longer be some cheap, disposable thing, but a high-quality product all along the value chain and back.
These are just a handful of the ideas under consideration at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s headquarters in Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK – and all interesting ways to ensure good businesses cases. Innovations from the industry, however, are necessary to help bring the concept of reuse to scale.
