Going down the biobased circular (recycling) economy rabbit hole

Abstract

The plastic petrochemical industry has created a linear economy, leading to global problems such as climate change. To diminish these problems, innovations in the recycling and plastic industry are happening, namely biobased polymers (BBP) and chemical recycling. Shifting to a biobased circular economy leads to the research question: How can the transition towards a biobased circular (recycling) economy be achieved? The transition is studied using the Multi-Level Perspective theory, mapping the three levels. For this, interviews are conducted with business associations/scientists for the landscape, novel BBP producers/chemical recyclers for the niche, and mechanical recyclers (including sorters)/petrochemical industry for the regime. Sub-question 1: What types of polymers will comprise the future market of biobased polymers? Drop-ins are made using biobased/recyclate added to crackers containing fossil oil, adding a percentage to create a BBP. On the other hand, novels are entirely and efficiently made from biomass and have added value. Challenges that favour drop-ins include the power of the regime, scale problems, and the high-cost price of biomass. Thus, it is not surprising that drop-ins will comprise the future market of BBP. However, optimally, the market should comprise more novel polyester BBP in the long term. Sub-question 2: What barriers and opportunities do (the identified future) BBP encounter when trying to fit into the recycling infrastructure for plastics? Novels face two main general barriers and opportunities, the barriers of the chicken-egg problem and contamination potential, the opportunities of scaling up recycling for a circular economy, and the recycling target of 40% set in the Dutch Transition Agenda for Plastic. Additionally, novels have three main chemical opportunities due to depolymerisation: low scale, low cost, and low energy usage. Sub-question 3: What solutions are (currently) available to overcome the barriers to fitting the future BBP into the recycling industry to create a circular economy? Five concrete policy suggestions are given: enabling collaboration, instituting CO2 pricing, investing in reuse, starting sorting/recycling novels, and adding a mandatory percentage of biobased content. To conclude, policymakers and governments need to use a system perspective to transition towards a biobased circular economy. Novel polyesters should be promoted due to their proven lower energy consumption, low persistence, and added value. Companies should be given the choice of using a mandatory recyclate or BBP by the Extended Producer Responsibility system. This combination has the highest CO2-saving potential and could stop the chicken-egg problem.