Special Issue
Christer Forsgren
Abstract
In a more circular economy the products of today should be part of the raw material for the products of tomorrow. To reach this we need to overcome a number of obstacles: 1.Environmental Legislation supporting innovation 2.Product design including reuse, repair and recycling. Present Extended Producer Responsibility legislation is collective, needs to generate incentives.. 3.Classification of waste is based on contamination content, should be based on risk. Products and material that has been used in society one time, often loses all of its value when it becomes waste. In average < 3 % of the value is left. There are many reasons for this, fashion, legislation, To avoid extreme down-grading of waste by treating using energy recovery or landfilling, technologies like chemical recycling needs to be applied. In most applications biodegradable plastics are non-sustainable, bio based in most cases the opposite. If a carbon atom is “black” or “green” does not make a big difference if it is circulated in society, but the possibilities to do so are today very limited.