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Recent Recycling Innovations to Facilitate Sustainable Packaging Materials: A Review
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This review examines advances in recycling technologies for packaging and related solid-waste materials, analysing mechanical, chemical and systemic innovations, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on packaging flows, and the socio-economic and regulatory enablers and barriers to scaling circular packaging systems.
Ibrahim et al. (2023) provide a comprehensive look at the state of packaging-material recycling and innovations that can advance sustainable packaging systems. The authors begin by outlining the growth in packaging waste volumes globally—in particular plastics—and the relatively low recycling rates in many geographies. They note that while traditional materials (paper, glass, metals) have well-established recycling streams, packaging plastics and composites present unique challenges: contamination, mixed materials, the economics of sorting and processing, and lagging collection infrastructure.
The core of the review is a breakdown of recycling innovations: mechanical recycling (improved sorting, densification, automated sorting via sensors and AI), chemical recycling (depolymerisation, pyrolysis, solvolysis) enabling recovery of monomers or high-value feedstock, energy-recovery adjuncts when material recycling is not viable, and design-for-recycling strategies (monomaterial packaging, material simplification, demountable laminates).
The paper also explores how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted packaging and waste-flows (e-commerce boom, hygiene demands, shifting collection patterns) and forced adaptations in both logistics and recycling infrastructure.
On the economic and social side, the authors highlight that recycling operations must balance environmental performance with business viability—collection, sorting, processing must be cost-effective, and consumer/municipal participation is essential. Regulatory frameworks, incentives (such as recycled-content mandates), and public-private collaboration are elevated as critical enablers.
The article concludes with future outlooks: increased adoption of chemical recycling, up-cycling (turning waste into higher-value products), circular-economy business models, and cross-sector collaboration (packaging designers working with recyclers). This review underlines that packaging design cannot be divorced from the end-of-life system: selecting materials amenable to the evolving recycling ecosystem is increasingly strategic.