STEPS towards a sustainable plastics system in a circular economy

Plastics are an integrated and important part of the global economy. Plastics have now come under close scrutiny for the ecological impact that their production, widespread use and disposal are having on our planet. Urgent solutions for a more sustainable plastics system are thus being requested, such as increasing their reuse and recycling in a circular economy by improvements in design and production. An important prerequisite for the transition from linear to a circular economy is to decouple plastics production from fossil feedstock, i.e. the building blocks used for the plastic materials should be carbon dioxide neutral and nontoxic.Biomass is considered to be an important renewable feedstock for the plastics as also for biofuels and chemicals. Biobased plastics comprise only about 1% of all the plastics currently in the market. There is thus plenty of room for innovative chemistry and technology development for manufacturing plastic building blocks from complex biomass streams and develop them into products with desired material properties and functionalities, as well as better durability and end-of-life solutions. Industrial biotechnology will constitute a key enabling technology for production of building blocks and polymers and also for recycling and biodegradation of plastics. A growing demand for sustainable products would however make biomass availability a limiting factor, hence diversity of renewable feedstocks is important to be considered when developing production pathways. A Swedish research programme STEPS (Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways) aims to play a key role in supporting transition of plastics sector to a more sustainable system by strengthening the knowledge and research base for technology- and product development and innovation, developing and assessing key niche products with industrial partners, and analysing the sustainability, institutional and policy implications of potential transition pathways.Acknowledgement: Mistra (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) and Swedish Research Council Formas are acknowledged for financial support