Policy Brief: Transitioning to a safe and sustainable circular economy for plastics

The transition to a circular economy minimizes resource consumption and plastic pollution by
moving away from the current linear economic model. The transition to a sustainable circular
economy should focus on reducing production and consumption, and only secondly increase
recycling rates, because large investments in waste handling facilities will promote the expanded
production of waste due to technology lock-in. What is more, this is bound to occur at the cost of
waste prevention and plastic reuse. In addition, unavoidable waste must be utilized more
efficiently. Further, chemicals in plastics must be given sufficient attention, as hazardous
chemicals are barriers to safe and transparent material preservation. Indeed, recycled and/or
reused plastics may contain higher levels of hazardous chemicals than virgin plastics. Finally,
reducing the overall volume of plastics introduced into the economy decreases unintended and
unavoidable releases into the environment (including from micro- and nano plastics and plastic
chemicals).
What is the circular economy?
There are at least 114 different definitions of the circular economy [1], but in principle, a circular
economy models its material flows on nature’s self-regenerating closed loops of materials and
chemical elements. In the circular economy, materials are kept in the value chain for as long as
possible before they become waste, and this waste then becomes input for other processes.
Ultimately, the circular economy becomes a continuous development cycle that sustainably meets
human needs while optimizing resource utilization, thereby reducing environmental degradation,
by becoming a restorative and regenerative system [2, 3]. Materials are designed primarily for
longevity and reuse, and also for subsequent recycling, although currently there is an overemphasis on plastics recycling.

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