Plastic plays a significant role in food packaging as: it serves to meet product safety and quality requirements. However, some types of packaging remain difficult to recycle for a number of technological and practical reasons and are prone to littering.
Alongside industry efforts to develop innovative and eco- friendly packaging alternatives, consumer education can go a long way towards the prevention of littering and investment in collection and sorting processes will increase the potential for recycling.
EURACTIV organised this workshop to explore, in light of the ongoing policy discussions on single-use plastics, the opportunities and barriers for improving the sustainability of food packaging. Questions included:
- Where do we stand in terms of R&D for sustainable food packaging?
- What set of incentives, policies and investments do we need to unlock a new generation of plastic food packaging that is recyclable, recycled and not littered?
- What should be the roles and responsibilities of each actor in the chain to prevent littering and increase recycling?
