An inter-disciplinary approach to the plastic packaging problem
From takeaway packaging and consumer behaviour change through to reuse opportunities and better packaging design, a ground-breaking research programme is bringing together academics from an array of disciplines to find practical solutions. Sara Banning, Innovation Lead for the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, explains how.
Summer 2019, a year after Blue Planet II shone the spotlight on plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, and everyone was talking about plastics, including UK Research & Innovation’s (UKRI) Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge (SSPP).
The task at hand, which united specialists from across UKRI, was to develop an Enabling Research funding competition to help unlock solutions to existing issues with plastic packaging, reduce plastic pollution, and tackle barriers to create fundamental changes in the industry.
Recognising that the global plastic pollution crisis has much to do with our relationship with plastic packaging in our everyday lives, the objective was to support inter-disciplinary research that could translate into real practical solutions and was also aligned to the rapidly changing policy landscape. This was, after all, a period when many new measures were being proposed around plastic packaging, including a UK Plastic Packaging Tax, major reforms to the UK’s packaging Producer Responsibility system, Deposit Return Schemes for beverage containers, and a range of proposals to increase the consistency and quality of household recycling collections.
About Enabling Research
The resulting Enabling Research call, managed by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with input from UKRI’s other research councils, led to the SSPP Challenge investing £8 million in 10 ground-breaking projects in November 2020. The universities leading these successful projects, which are due for completion by 2023/24, are working with partners from across the packaging supply chain to ensure that solutions respond to industry needs and support systemic change across the supply chain.
This inter-disciplinary approach is bringing together an amazing array of packaging experts, behavioural scientists, material scientists, designers, brands, retailers, waste managers, non-governmental organisations and more to explore a range of challenges, including:
· optimising the use of compostable plastic packaging;
· using smart technology to change the way takeaway food is packaged;
· creating new circular approaches to plastic waste management:
· modelling consumer behaviour to inform better packaging design;
· enabling reusable packaging systems at scale; and
· shifting consumer behaviour around food plastic packaging.
18 months on
I’ve had the privilege of working with the Enabling Research projects for over a year and two things stand out. Firstly, the ten university-led projects are already helping us map out what a future plastic packaging system could look like and the opportunities for all players. Researchers involved in the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project, for example, have shared important project insights in recent issue of Lancaster University Management School’s Fifty Four Degrees magazine entitled ‘The pressing plastic problem’.
Secondly, the individual ER projects are not only helping to tackle these challenges through their own research projects but are also working together to drive progress, as the diagram below demonstrates.
To encourage and build on this inter-connectivity, SSPP has been facilitating quarterly workshops to bring all the projects together to explore common challenges and themes. At a workshop in Autumn 2021 on ‘the language of disposal’, for example, the project teams explored and debated the importance of communication in improving understanding and driving and supporting changes in behaviour. When even simple terms such as ’rubbish’ and ‘resource’ mean different things to different people and affect how they respond to messages (e.g. about recycling), the complexity presented by the different types of plastic packaging makes clear, engaging and accessible communication an imperative.
SSPP will be sharing more insights from these 10 projects as they progress. If you are interested in learning more, why not join us at Materials Research Exchange 2022 (3–5 October, Business Design Centre, London)? Designed to enable closer collaboration between industry and the materials research and innovation community, this year’s seminar and workshop programme will be full of new insights about the latest materials research and innovations, with a focus on high performance, net zero materials required by key sectors such as transport, packaging and construction. We hope to see you there!
Want to know more?
The Smart Sustainable Plastic Challenge is part of the UKRI Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. ISCF addresses the big societal challenges being faced by UK businesses today, backed by £2.6 billion of public money, with £3 billion in matched funding from the private sector. You can read more about what we do here.
