Non-household end-use plastics: the ‘forgotten’ plastics for the circular economy
Kerstin Kleinhans
1,2,3, Ruben Demets
1,2, Jo Dewulf
3, Kim Ragaert
2and Steven De Meester
1Itiscommonlyagreedinthecurrentlegislativeandscientific discoursethatplasticsrecyclingratesshouldbeincreased.
Manyrecyclingstudiesarededicatedtowardsthis,butoften theyfocusonpost-householdplasticwaste.Non-household end-useplasticsseemstobeforgottenindatagathering,policy makingandresearch,buthavepromisingpotentialforhigh qualityrecycling.Inthismanuscriptwebringtogetherthemost recentexistingliteratureonnon-householdend-useplastic wasteandofferaframeworkforshiftingfuturewaste managementplanstoeffectivelyhelpincreasingrecycling rates.
Addresses
1LaboratoryforCircularProcessEngineering(LCPE),Departmentof GreenChemistryandTechnology,FacultyofBioscienceEngineering, GhentUniversity,GraafKareldeGoedelaan5,8500Kortrijk,Belgium
2CenterforPolymerandMaterialTechnologies(CPMT),Departmentof Materials,TextilesandChemicalEngineering,FacultyofEngineering andArchitecture,GhentUniversity,Technologiepark130,
9052Zwijnaarde,Belgium
3SustainableSystemsEngineering(STEN),DepartmentofGreen ChemistryandTechnology,FacultyofBioscienceEngineering,Ghent University,CoupureLinks653,9000Ghent,Belgium
Correspondingauthor:
DeMeester,Steven([email protected])
CurrentOpinioninChemicalEngineering2021,XX:xx–yy ThisreviewcomesfromathemedissueonFrontiers:energy,envir- onmentandsustainability:plasticsintheenvironment
EditedbyHerbCabezasandSadhanJana
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2021.100680
2211-3398/ã2021TheAuthor(s).PublishedbyElsevierLtd.Thisisan openaccessarticleundertheCCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Introduction
Currently the global average plastic recycling rate is below20%[1].Thislow plasticrecyclingrateiswidely addressedandtargetedfor example,inEuropeanpolicy ortheU.S.PlasticsPact[2–6].Increasingplasticrecycling ratesisimportanttobecomeasustainableandresource- efficient society as plastics releasedin theenvironment cause environmental problems and the traditional pro- ductionofplasticsisdependentonourfossilfuelreserves [7–9].The focusofpolicyguidelinesas wellasresearch
oftenliesonpost-consumerpackagingwaste[10],asitis thelargestplasticwastestream[7].Inthis,theterminol- ogy of consumption means household consumption, whereas the ISO definition of ‘post-consumer’ in fact relates to all activities where waste is disposed by an end-user,includingend-usersthatareforexample,com- panies(industrialwaste)orshops (commercialwaste).
Post-consumerwasteofindustrialorcommercialoriginsis quitediverse,intype,compositionandlevelofcontami- nationdependingstronglyonitsdisposingentity.How- ever,thiswasteissignificantlydifferentfromhousehold waste.Someexamplesincludeflexiblefilmthatisusedas secondarypackaging(beitaroundpalletsorforindividual itemslikeinclothingshops),EPSforpackagingpurposes andrigidplasticsfromtemporaryproductslikedisplaysor crates (Pots, tubes, and trays (PTTs), crates, canisters/
barrels).Quantitiesandrecycling ratesforthesespecific plastic waste streams are typically poorly reported in scientific andgrey literature,ifreportedatall.
Thegoalofthismanuscriptisthereforetwofold:firstly,to addresstheoftenconfusingterminologyregardingtypes of plasticwasteandsecondly,to reviewthemostrecent studies that address quantities, composition, collection, andrecyclingpotentialofnon-householdend-useplastic waste. Additionally, we discuss the bottlenecks and opportunitiesforthistype ofplasticwastetocontribute to acirculareconomy forplastics.
Terminology
Thefirstissueisthattheterminologyandcommonlyused definitions do not specifically address non-household end-use plastics.ISO14021:2016distinguishes pre-and post-consumer material [11]. Pre-consumer material, often referred to as post-industrial waste, is defined as
‘material diverted from the waste stream during a manufacturingprocess.Excludedisreutilizationofmate- rials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated in a processandcapableof beingreclaimedwithinthesame process that generated it.’ [11]. The same ISO norm defines post-consumer material as waste generated by
‘end-userssuchascommercial,industrialandinstitutional facilities, next to households’ [11]. This definition is commonly used, for example, in Eurostat [12] or EPA [13]databases.Inparallel,thetermmunicipalwasteisused to address wastes collected bymunicipalities nomatter theorigin(e.g.household,commercial,institutional)[14–
17]. The common terms ‘post-consumer waste’ and
‘municipalwaste’arethus agroup termforbothhouse- holdandnon-householdwaste.Anoverviewofcommonly usedterminologycanbefound inFigure 1.
Whenlooking deeperintothesetypesof waste,wecan seethattheyareinherentlydifferent.Plasticwastefrom householdsoftencomprisesacomplexmaterialmixthat ispronetocontaminations,asitcontainstypicalproducts bought for example, in supermarkets as PET Bottles, PETtrays,PEbottles,PPbottlesandtrays,filmssuchas foodwraps,andsoon.Ontheotherhand,whentheend- user isabusiness,industryor institution,typicalplastic waste products are secondary packaging that might be eligibleforhighendrecyclingontheirownbutmightnot end up in a suitablerecycling scheme. Looking to the
differencein typology of waste, itcanbe questioned if theyshould fall withinthesame terminologicalclassifi- cation,being‘post-consumer’.
Another commonly used terminology is commercial and industrial (C&I) waste. This might cause confusion, as pre-consumer wasteis also referredto as post-industrial waste,whichalsoincludesindustrialscrapsofhighpurity.
Inthissense,thereisadistinctionbetweenindustrythat produces, and industry that ‘consumes’. Following a standardized classification for economic activities, for example, the European ‘NACE’ codes [https://ec.
europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/index/nace_all.
html],plastic producingsectors include amongst others
‘20.16Manufactureofplasticsinprimaryforms’and‘22.2 Manufactureofplasticproducts’.Allothersectorsinfact
Figure1
Manufacturing of intermediate products
Manufacturingof articles for end-use Plastics converting
sectors
Converting intermediate products to packaging or
consumer goods
End-use & disposal in industrial operations
End-use & disposal in commercial operations
Industrial &
commercial sectors
End-use & disposal of packaging or consumer goods
Households
Towards waste management
Post-consumer material (ISO) Pre-consumer material (ISO)
Non-municipal waste/ post-industrial waste Municipal waste
Pre-consumer end-use plastic waste
Non-household end-use plastic waste
Household end-use plastic waste
Commonly used definitionsSuggested definition
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
Overviewofuseddefinitionsontheexampleofplasticwaste.Boldarrowsrepresentmaterialflowsanddashedarrowswasteflows.
consume plastic products from these sectors, which meansthatothermanufacturingbusinessorcommercial activitiesactlikeend-usersofplasticitems.Asanexam- ple, PET-traysandLDPE wrappingfilm thatservesas packaging of car parts in a car manufacturing company and is disposed there, is not post-industrial waste, but should be more clearly classified separately.Therefore, we propose to consistently differentiate between the terminology ‘non-household end-use plastics’ and
‘householdend-use plastics’.Notethatin thisproposed terminology, theterm‘consumption’isalsoreplacedby
‘end-use’, as this seems more suited to capture what happenstoplasticasconsumptionmightbemoresuited for applicationssuchasfood.
Quantities
To our knowledge, there is hardly any scientific study withasystematicfocusonsolelynon-householdend-use plastics and itspotential for thecircular economy.The fewstudiesonthistopicfocusonmixedcommercialand industrial waste, including but not limited to plastics.
Table1givesanoverviewonthestudiesavailableonnon- household (plastic) waste typically performed with a specific regionalfocus.
Already in 2000 it was pointed out that literature with non-household typewasteingeneralisscarce[27].Sev- eralotherauthorsconfirmthatthiswastestreamsarenot
wellrecordedintheEUandthatdetailedglobaldataare missing[1,26,28].ThisissaidveryaptlybyDeWeerdt etal.inastudyfocusingontheeffectofwasteincineration taxationbynoticingtheasymmetrybetweenthelimited studies compared to its amounts of waste generation, callingiteven‘paradoxical’[29].Thislackofdatahinders policy makers to set clear target and recognition of opportunities[26].
Thosepresentedstudies(Table1)giveafirstglimpseon the quantities of non-household end-use plastic waste produced, but it remains hard to deduct numberswith great confidence.The scarce data sources indicate that non-household type waste streams, when collected comingled with other materials, have a plastic content ofapproximately10–20%.Followingtheassumptionthat non-household end-use plastic waste mainly consist of secondary packaging, it allows the estimationbased on thestudyof Hestinet al. of5300kt/aof non-household end-use plasticwaste inthe EU [26]. Transferringthe informationofAustralia(158.8kt/aC&Iplasticwaste[1] with 25.68M inhabitants) and Germany (1385kt/a municipal commercial plastic waste [24] with 83.19M inhabitants)towardsEU27 (447M inhabitants)weesti- mate 2768kt/a and 7453kt/a non-household end-use plastics for the EU27, respectively, which are thus in thesame orderof magnitudecompared tothefirstesti- matebasedonHestinetal. [26].
Table1
Averageplasticcontentreportedfornon-householdwastestreamsforthelastrecentyears Plastic
content [w%]
Plastic quantities
[kt/a]
Plastic quantities percapital [kg/capitaa]a
Wastetypespecification accordingtoauthors
Region Year Source
17.65a – – Municipalcommercial
waste
Austria 2018/2019 Weissenbachetal.[18]
– 116.5 10.16c Commercialwaste Belgium 2018 Valipac[19]
10.1 – – Commercialwaste HoiAnCity,Vietnam 2016 Phuetal.[20]
– 291 378 – Industrialplastic
containersand packaging
Japan 2015 Nakatanietal.[21]
7 – – Commercialand
industrialwaste
Australia 2013 Bremneretal.[22]
– 158.8 6.18d Commercialand
industrialwaste
Australia 2015/2016 OECD[1]
– 736 924 – Non-consumer UK 2017 WRAP[23]
20 1385b 16.64e Municipalcommercial
waste
Germany 2012,2013and
2015
Dehneetal.[24]
21.8 – – Commercialsolidwaste Mexicali,BajaCalifornia, Mexico
2012 Gardun˜o-P.etal.[25]
– 5300a – Commercialand
industrialpolyolefinand PETwaste
EU 2014 Hestinetal.[26]
aCalculatedbasedoninformationgiveninthestudy.
b Underdoubtofauthors.
cCalculatedbasedon11.46Minhabitants[https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/population/structure-population].
d Calculatedbasedon25.69Minhabitants[https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population].
eCalculatedbasedon83.19Minhabitants[https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/].
Eurostat gives additional information on the origin of plastic wasteby NACE activityin theEU27 [30],that can be found in the Supplementary Material Figure1.Overall,13850kt/aplasticwastefromcommer- cial or industrial origin are reported compared to 16800kt/afromhouseholds.ThesectorsC(Manufactur- ing) and G-U (Services) are reported to produce the largestamountsofplastic waste.For themanufacturing sector(C),dataforadditional10subsectorsareavailable, whereas‘Manufactureofchemical, pharmaceutical,rub- ber and plastic products’ (NACE 20-22) with 41.83%,
‘Manufacture of food products; beverages and tobacco products’(NACE10-12)with19.69%and‘Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products, electrical equipment, motor vehicles and other transport equipment’ (NACE 26-30) with 14.09% are the three biggestplasticwasteproducingsectors.
Assuming that plastic waste reported for the NACE sectors E (Water supply; sewerage, waste management andremediationactivities),G46.77(Wholesaleofwaste andscrap)and20–22(Manufactureofchemical,pharma- ceutical,rubberandplasticproducts)doesnotfallunder our definition of non-household end-use plastics the expected plasticquantities for theEU27 would reduce to6310kt/athatcomesclosetotheestimationof5300kt/
abyHestinetal.[26]whoonlyaccountingforpackaging material.
There is the indication from a Belgian study [https://
www.valipac.be/nl/waar-belandt-ons-bedrijfsmatig- plastic-verpakkingsafval-uiteindelijk/] that more than 50%of non-householdplasticwasteisexported outside oftheEU.WRAP confirmsthisandgives anindication that theamounts estimated could be evenhigher than 50% [23].Exportedplasticwasteand landfillingcanbe identified as one of the main pathways that release plasticstowardstheenvironment,forexample,as ocean debris[31].
Composition
The recycling potential for plastics is, among others, dependent on the polymer types and contamination levelspresent in the waste stream [32]. Diving deeper intocompositionaldataofnon-householdend-usewaste, big varieties can be noted in the share of plastic, explained by the diversity of types and size of the
businesses[18,33].Hestinetal.[26]reportspecifically ashareof 58% film,24% bottles and flasksand 18% of Pots,TubesandTrays(PPTs)in Europeancommercial and industrial plastic packaging waste, see Table2.Dehneetal.confirmsthatfilmandrigidplastic arethebiggesttypesinmunicipalcommercialwaste[24].
AstudyfromtheUnitedNationsEnvironmentProgramm reports that non-household end-use plastics mainly comprises PE,PP, PS and PVC [35].This canbe con- firmedbyotherauthorsandthefactthatthesepolymers make part of the biggest types of polymers produced [1,21,23,26,34].Hestinetal. [26]providesinformation ontheshareofpolymertypepertypethatcanbefoundin Table2.Nexttothat,Table3givesdataontheshareof polymertypein C&Iwastein Australia[1].
Collection
Thecollectionrate ofcommercialand industrialplastic packaging waste in the EU is stated to be 39% [26].
Collectioncostsofnon-householdwastearesignificantly lower compared to post-household waste as there are more consistent and the amounts are generally large [28,35].Accordingto ongoingresearch andexpertjudg- mentfromrecyclersand collectors,it canbestatedthat significantamounts of non-household plasticwaste still end up in the residual bin, especially from small and medium-sizedenterprises(SMEs).Companiesstatethat theyeither donotknowothercollectionsystems, think their wasteamounts are insignificant or think that it is more convenient than asource separated collection. In comparison to post-household waste, the collection is oftendonebyprivateoperatorsinsteadofbeingorganized bythelocal municipalities.Plasticwastefrom thecom- mercial sector and SMEs, in contrast, might also be collected via a municipal collector but often as part of amixedresidualwastefraction [27].Furthermore, they
Table2
Shareofgeneratedtypeandpolymerofcommercialandindus- trialpackagingwasteintheEU(2014)byRef.[26].Allvaluesin [%]
Share PET HDPE LDPE PP
Bottle/flask 24 9 86 / 5
PTTs 18 27 32 0 41
Films 58 1 0 83 16
Table3
Wastestreamsourcesofrecyclate[kt/a]inAustraliabypolymer type(2015–2016)[1]
Polymer Municipal Commercialand
industrial
PET 64.20 40% 8.40 5%
PE-HD 63.90 40% 31.00 20%
PVC 1.60 1% 2.70 2%
PE-LD/LLD 2.80 2% 66.00 42%
PP 19.00 12% 21.40 13%
PS 4.10 3% 4.10 3%
PS-E 0.10 0% 7.80 5%
ABS/SAN – 0% 4.00 3%
PU – 0% 6.20 4%
Nylon – 0% 0.50 0%
Other 5.50 3% 4.20 3%
Unknownpolymer – 0% 2.50 2%
Total 161.2 100% 158.8 100%
arenotalwayspronefortheextendedproducerresponsi- bility (EPR) schemes [26]. Both these points have as consequencethatdataonthesefractionsisnotsystemat- icallymonitoredperregionandproducingsector[26,35].
Potential forthe circulareconomy
Studiesontherecyclingpotentialofnon-householdend- use type materialsare likewise scarce [36].Wholefrac- tionsofmixedcommercialwaste,likeplastics,couldinfact berecyclablebutdueto technicalissues(e.g.disassem- blingofcomposites)orcontaminationthisisnoteconom- icallyfeasible[18].Thereforeitiscommonlyusedassolid recoveredfuel(SRF)thankstohighcaloricvalueandlow watercontent [18,37].
To our knowledge, there are no studies yet on the recycling potential merely focusing on non-household end-useplastics.Somesourcesstatethatthiswastetends to be of higher quality compared to household plastic waste[1,26].Accordingtotheauthor’sexperience,this valuable materialisoften downgradedbymixedcollec- tion,whichsignificantlycontaminatesthe‘cleaner’plas- tics, turningrecyclable plasticsintoresidualwaste.
Analyzing thestudiesdiscussed inSections ‘Quantities’
and ‘Composition’ gives a glimpseon thequantities of non-household end-use plastic, which can give a first estimationontheirpotentialcontributiontothecircular economy.Knowingthattotalpost-consumerplasticwaste generated in the EU28+NO/CH is 29.1M t/a [34] or 23.7Mt/aintheEU27 [30],thequantitiesestimatedin Section ‘Quantities’ (2–7M t/a) shows that the non- householdplasticwasteisexpectedtocontributesome- wherebetween10–30%oftherecyclingrateoftheEU, and it thus has a big potential to reach the ambitions plastic recycling targets of the EU and beyond. These numbershaveafocusontheEU,butitisexpectedtobe inthesameorderofmagnitudeforotherareassuchasthe USAorSoutheastAsian(dataforplasticcontentinMSW for example,tobefoundin Refs.[38]or [39]).
Discussion
Based on the above findings we introduce the term
‘forgotten plastics’ for non-household end-use plastic.
Generally, industrialactorsand some policymakers are well aware that these waste streams exist, yet these potentially highlyrecyclable plastics typicallydisappear intheoverallwastestatisticsandconsequently,policies, andscientificresearchdoesnotaddressitseparately,also caused by the lack of data. Literature indicatesthat in terms of quantity and quality they could significantly contributeto thecirculareconomyfor plastics.
Togivenon-householdend-useplasticwasteachanceto becomepartof acirculareconomy,thelackofdataand therelatedoflackofattentionthathasbeenlastingfora few decades [23] has to end. We therefore propose a
strategy to mitigatethe current status quo of recycling non-household end-use plasticwaste,which isdepicted in Figure2.
First,aclear terminologyhastobeintroducedthatallows setting the rightfocus on datacollection, research,and policymaking. We propose to systematically subdivide theISOdefinitionofpost-consumerwasteintohousehold andnon-householdmaterialandtherebyacknowledging the difference in origin, composition, and recycling potential.
Secondly,to mitigatearguments ontheeconomicfeasi- bility of recycling thesenon-householdfraction,astruc- turalcollectionofdataonquantitiesandqualitieshastobe done based on the terminology as described above.
Thereby it is crucial to analyze different sectors
Figure2
Understanding the status quo by structural collection of data of waste generation and
compositions per NACE sectors Data on quality and quantities Introduction of a clear terminology for non-household end-use waste for use in data
gathering, research & policy making Clear terminology
Creating local business cases, e.g., new recycling facilities and creating business links to create a
local network for a circular economy Circular business cases
Finding the optimal trade-off between sufficient material collection to make a collection system economically and providing the best quality for recycling possible, e.g., by source separation
Tailored waste management
Behavior change
Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering
Flowchartsuggestiontobringfocusonnon-householdend-use plasticsinthefuture.Bluearrowsindicateco-dependencies.
separatelybyfor example,usingaNACEclassification.
Gatheringdataonthistypeofwastewillbeachallenge,as a statistically relevant number of business should be analyzed,preferably perNACE code to gain insight in thediversityofthistypeofwaste.Furthermore,thereis also a diversity within each NACE code related to for example company size.Data should thus preferablybe analyzed per NACE codesand expressed as wasteper employeeorperturnover[33].Dataoncompositionup to polymer level is lacking as well, despite this being crucialinformationforhigh-endrecycling solutions.
Thirdly, based on this data tailored waste management solutionsthatfindanoptimaltrade-offbetweencollecting sufficienttonnages to beeconomically feasible but also providinghighestqualitiespossibleshouldbeintroduced.
Somestreamsmightbesufficientlycleantoreprocessas such,whereasothersneedtobekeptseparate.Basedon theexperienceoftheauthorteam,wetendtobelievethat it will be difficult to achieve the same qualities when performingpost-separationinsteadof sourceseparation, even with state-of-the-art technology. We encourage puttingfutureresearch focus onthis. Extendedstudies onlumpingstrategiesofdifferentkindofsubstreams(e.g.
persector,perpolymertype,percontaminationlevel)of non-householdend-useplasticstooptimizethetrade-off betweenqualityand quantityareneeded.Inthissense, lumping can be defined as the investigation on which plasticwastestreamscanbemixedorabsolutelyneedto be excluded during collection and recycling to ensure bestrecyclingqualitypossible.Thiscandepend,amongst others, on polymer types, contamination level and quantities.
Further, we are convinced that especially urban areas have a big potential for developing tailored collection solutions due to thehigh density of business activities.
Moreover, innovative, and sustainable collections solu- tions,forexample,reverselogistics,electronicvehiclesor transportbicyclesshouldbeinvestigated.Alsointroduc- ingEPRschemesspecificallyfornon-householdend-use couldprovidemorepronouncedfinancialincentives[26].
Thisstepscanbethestartingpointtoalsofindlinkages betweenindustries,likerecommendedbyChertowetal., tocreatecircularbusinesscases[40].Toreachthis,studies likeBremneretal.orPatricioetal.formultiplebusiness sectorswithfocusonplasticwasteshouldbeconducted [22,33].Thepurposeofacirculareconomyforplastics, and thus for circular business models, is to maintain products and materials in the loop through several value-preservingcycles,suchasrepair,reuse,remanufac- turing and recycling[9]. Thiscan be doneby tailoring businessmodelsandproductdesign,amongstothers,but sinceplasticsoftenmovefastthroughthevaluechainit mightbeimportanttoapplyforexample,quadruplehelix approachesto reachabroadergroupof stakeholders[9]
Lu¨deke-Freundgiveacomprehensivereviewonexisting circularbusinessmodelsin literature andconclude that sixmajorpatternsforcircularbusinessmodelsare:‘repair andmaintenance;reuseandredistribution;refurbishment andremanufacturing;recycling;cascadingandrepurpos- ing;andorganicfeedstockbusinessmodels’[41].Accent- urestrategy (2014) identifies thefollowing five circular business models as most promising: resource recovery, product-servicesystems,product-lifeextensions,sharing platformsand circularvalue chains [42]. Especiallythe latter (‘circularvalue chains’) canbe promising as local businesscasesfornon-householdplasticwaste,forexam- ple,informsof alocal plastichubwithproductmakers andwasteownersthatsharethe(positiveandnegative) value of the circular plastics. All this is not possible withoutbehaviorchangeofbusinessesandbusinesscases.
Beingopenforsettinguparecyclingsystemforplasticsin business,using morematerialswith recycledcontent or usingrecyclatein one’sownproduction,needsengaged decision makers in the businesses. A recent study by Khan et al. analyzed the barriers and drivers towards recyclinginseveralbusinesses[43].Theyconcludethat thereisanintention-behaviorgap:businesseshaveposi- tiveintentionstowardsbestpracticesinplasticsrecycling butseem to failto implementthese.Theyrecommend thatgovernmentshavetoofferincentives,disseminating knowledge,andcreatingnetworkingplatformsforcollab- orationamongdecision makersto overcomethis[43].
Conclusions
Because of thelack of clear terminologyand thecom- monlyuseddivisioninpre-consumerandpost-consumer waste,end-useplasticwastefromnon-householdoriginis notsufficientlyaddressedinpolicymaking,datagather- ingnorinresearch,despiteitshighpotentialforrecycling.
Therefore,weaddressthemasthe‘forgottenplastics of thecirculareconomy’andintroducethetermnon-house- holdend-useplastic.
Thelimited numberof currentstudiesonquantities of non-household waste like streams indicate to have a plasticcontent of around10–20%.Weestimate arange of 2800 7500kt/a of non-household end-use plastic wastein theEU, but thisis prone to highvariations as itdependsonthenumber,type,andsizesofbusinesses.
Non-householdplasticscanthusprobablycontributeby 10–30%torecyclingratetargetsandthusplayanessential roleinthecirculareconomy.
Nevertheless,overalldataavailabilityispoor[1,26,27–
29].Thisholdsalsoforcompositionalanalyses.Onlyafew studiesshow that the mainpolymers in non-household end-useplasticareofPE,PP,PSandPVCandthebiggest wastetypeisfilmmaterial(58%accordingtoRef.[26]), yet from a different typology compared to household plasticwaste.Non-householdend-useplasticfromSMEs areoftencollectedasamixedwastefraction andwhich
decreases its potential for qualitative recycling as the separatewastestreamwouldusuallycontainlesscontam- ination comparedtohousehold waste.
Non-household end-use plastic streams can play an important roletoincrease overallplasticrecyclingrates.
Todoso,ithastobebroughtintothepictureofpolicy makers,statisticalinstitutes,andresearch,byintroducing clear terminology, structural data gathering, tailored wastemanagementsolutionsandthecreationofcircular business cases. Moreover, general behavior changes of businessplayarollintoallthesepoints.
Thisreviewhopestohavesufficientlyhighlightedthese
‘forgotten plastics’ as asubject for further research and policy making.
Conflictof intereststatement Nothing declared.
CRediT authorshipcontribution statement Kerstin Kleinhans: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing-originaldraft,Writing-review&editing.Ruben Demets: Conceptualization, Writing-review &editing.
JoDewulf:Conceptualization,Writing-review&editing, Supervision. Kim Ragaert:Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Steven De Meester:
Conceptualization, Writing-review &editing,Supervi- sion, Projectadministration.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.
1016/j.coche.2021.100680.
Acknowledgements
WethanktheInterreg2SeasprogramPlastiCitythatisco-fundedbythe EuropeanRegionalDevelopmentFundundersubsidycontractNo.2S05- 021andtheprovinceofEast-Flandersforfundingthisresearch.
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