Plastic Packaging Elimination in the FMCG Sector

Plastic waste problem has become a pressing issue for businesses. Growing awareness of the need for the reduction of plastic waste has fully reached business reality. Companies are seeking alternatives to mitigate pressing environmental demands resulting from growth in plastics consumptions. This is especially so for FMCG companies as one of the key contributors to the plastic waste. In addition, companies must deal with an increasingly competitive context where sustainable innovation is regarded as necessary for survival. Thus research into current plastic reduction innovation is paramount to guide companies to succeed in this area. In this context, this research consolidates research and knowledge in the FMCG industry in the field of plastic reduction. It aggregates findings through the framework of factors influencing the reduction of plastic usage in FMCG sector. The research comprises, in different research stages, two rounds of literature research and semi-structured interviews with 23 FMCG companies deploying a Factor Mapping Grid developed in this research. Deployment of the grid identified 51 factors, along with 15 themes and three sequencing types concerning these factors’ relationships with each other. The research demonstrated the central function of consumers: they ranked simultaneously as the greatest enabler for companies to reduce the use of plastics in packaging and as the second greatest barrier. Whether consumers function as an enabler or a barrier depends on if consumers are well educated on sustainability and transfer this into action. Barriers result from commercial uncertainties associated with adopting alternatives: Will the alternative have the same properties as plastics? Will consumers buy the new packaging? Will we have enough money for new machinery? Overall, the framework produced by this research facilitates the development of circular packaging supply chains