| dc.description.abstract | Chile has shown the ambition to position itself as a leader in producing sustainable wines. A National Sustainability Code and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law were implemented in the last two decades. However, none of them properly addresses the waste generation for packaging trough the supply chain. Circular business models (CBMs) have been studied as a possibility to reduce waste generation. This research aims to study the amount of packaging waste generation that CBMs can reduce through the supply chain.
To quantify packaging trough the supply chain, primary, secondary and tertiary packaging were studied using a Material Flow Analysis. Two systems were defined and compared to calculate the potential waste reduction; a system representing the current state, and a new theoretical configuration where CBMs are in place. The current system was defined by collecting data from experts’ interviews, company reports and governmental publications. The new configuration was devised using the retention options hierarchy framework, combined with industry best practices and in-depth assessment with industry experts.
The selected primary packaging was glass bottles which generated 70.089 ton of waste and it was reduced to 14.950 ton by incorporating the CBM ‘deposit-refund services’. The secondary packaging studied was cardboard boxes which generate 3.695 ton of waste per year, the new design considered increasing the recycling rate which could reduce waste to 1.852 ton. For tertiary packaging two materials were selected, wood and plastic pallets. Wood pallets generate 15.826 ton of waste and plastic pallets do not because their model is already circular. Pallets’ waste was reduced to cero by incorporating the CBM ‘transport & logistics services’. The total waste that CBM could reduce is 81% from 89.610 to 16.747 ton per year which is mainly explained by increasing the returnability of glass bottles and pallets by seven times.
The results show that there are multiple gaps that along the packaging process where CBMs could be effectively applied to reduce waste generation on the packaging of the domestic Chilean Wine. This was a theoretical study; therefore, prototypes and specifics studies are advised before implementing one of the activities or CBM found in this research. | |
