According to a scientific article published in the Journal of Waste Management by Lucia Rigamonti from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, together with researchers from Brunel University in London, the University of Southern Denmark and Wageningen University & Research, the concept of “circularity” is not necessarily synonymous with “sustainability”. Efforts to achieve circularity do not always guarantee a sustainable result, therefore it is important to define more clearly the concept of circularity and what we hope to achieve by fostering it.
Currently, the circularity of packaging materials, components and products is one way to reduce the negative environmental impact of the life cycle of packaging. However, the meaning of the term is still broad and most of the indicators used to measure it fail to capture the complexity of the system or the wider effects, including potential ripple effects that may nullify or even reverse the environmental benefits.
To solve this problem adopting a practical approach, researchers have proposed a circularity scoreboard based on 7 simple questions that cover the life cycle of a product: production, use and end-of-life.
Current actions aimed at circularity can focus too much on superficial effects and lose sight of the real goals of the circular economy. Our goal is to kick-start a scientific discussion on how best to combine scientific knowledge and research on material, component and product flows across society to achieve the broader goal of sustainability while keeping pace with the time frames imposed by corporate decisions and policies. This is why we call for meaningful circularity targets, to prevent corporate decisions or policies from inadvertently helping to consolidate policies and infrastructure that do not contribute to real sustainability,
the four researchers argue.
In a context where the European Commission intends to transform the Packaging Waste Directive into a regulation directly applicable in all EU Member States, it is of paramount importance not to lose sight of the real goals of the circular economy.
