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Ai Sustainable Packaging Approaches for Current Waste Challenges by Karen Cheng B.S. in Industrial Design Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014 Submitted to the Integrated Design and Management Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2019 2019 Karen Cheng. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Signature of Author: Karen Cheng Integrated Design and Management Program May 14, 2019 Certified by: Steven Eppinger General Motors LGO Professor of Management Professor of Management Science and Innovation Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Signature redacted Matthew S. Kr ssy MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTEI OF TECHNOLOGY Executive Dire tor Integrated Design and Management Prog am JUN 2 7 2019 LIBRARIES ARCHIVES This page is intentionally left blank. 2 Sustainable Packaging Approaches for Current Waste Challenges by Karen Cheng Submitted to the Integrated Design and Management Program in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Abstract Packaging plays an essential role in protecting a product from damage, attracting consumers to purchase a product, and facilitating storage and consumption. Yet its appreciation and value is quickly eroded once the product is purchased and/or consumed and the package becomes waste. With the passing of China's National Sword policy in 2018, post-consumer materials recycling markets are threatened and resources are not being recovered due to high contamination rates. The development of new packaging material has surged in recent years but has not corresponded with development of the necessary recycling infrastructure. Consumers want to recycle but are confused about how to most effectively do so. Packaging continues to consume our finite resources and pollute our terrestrial and marine environments. This research takes a systems approach to understanding today's emerging waste challenges and identifies key obstacles that society should collectively solve. High impact opportunity areas include alignment amongst all key stakeholders, establishing standardized signage and labels, increasing consumer education, and tackling difficult-to-recycle materials through scaling up technology, enacting policy, providing materials alternatives with corresponding infrastructure, or redesigning packaging. Thesis Supervisor: Steven Eppinger Title: General Motors LGO Professor of Management Professor of Management Science and Innovation 3 This page is intentionally left blank. 4 Acknowledgments I express my sincerest gratitude to: - Professor Steven Eppinger for his guidance, mentorship, and insights that pushed me to dive deeper into my passion for sustainable design - Matt Kressy who gave me the privilege of joining his program - My IDM cohort who continuously inspire me - Jack Shen Jr. for his support, patience, and love - My parents, Mei Chan Cheng and Hiu Yu Cheng Lam, as well as my brother, Kevin Cheng, for everything. I dedicate this thesis to them. 5 This page is intentionally left blank. 6 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Motivation.......................................................................... 9 1 .2 O v e rv ie w ................................................................................................. .. 1 1 2. Context 2.1 History of Packaging & its Role on Branding......................................................12 2.2 Three Categories of Packaging...................................................................... 12 2.3 Three Categories of Waste...........................................................................13 2 .4 T he C irc ular E co no m y .................................................................................... 14 2.5 Reduce & Reuse First................................................................................. 16 2.6 Recycle & Compost Second............................................................................ 16 3. Problem Space 3.1 Recycling Contamination in the United States.................................................... 19 3.2 Case Study: Contamination at MIT..................................................................21 3.3 Food and Liquid Contamination......................................................................24 3 .4 P lastics C onfusio n ................................................................................... .. 25 3.5 Bioplastics Confusion................................................................................. 27 3.6 Lack of Commercial Composting Facilities........................................................29 3.7 Consumer Behavior................................................................................... 29 3 .8 G reen D ot S ystem ..................................................................................... .. 30 4. Packaging Innovations 4.1 Innovations in Packaging Products.................................................................. 32 4.2 Innovations in Packaging Systems.................................................................. 36 5. High Impact Opportunity Areas 5.1 Alignment Amongst all Key Stakeholders.......................................................... 43 5.2 Establish Standardized Signage and Labels...................................................... 44 5.3 Increase Consumer Education......................................................................... 47 5.4 Tackle Difficult-to-Recycle Packaging Materials.....................................................48 6. Conclusion 6 .1 T he R o le of D esigners...................................................................................... 59 6 .2 F u tu re W o rk ........................................................................................................ 60 7 . B ib lio g ra p h y .............................................................................................................. 6 1 7 This page is intentionally left blank. 8 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Motivation "Packaging is the visible excess of contemporary consumption. It is what is left over, surplus, discarded on the way to the objects that we desire... It is carefully designed, but designed to have no value, to be disposable, to be waste... it is ephemeral, but it gets in the way; we need it, but it offends us when it is out of place; we require it but simultaneously are disgusted by it." (Fisher & Shipton, 2010) Packaging plays an essential role in protecting a product from damage, attracting consumers to purchase a product, and facilitating storage and consumption. It is one of the things that consumers see first and can promote a brand image that differentiates a product from its competitors in retail. Unfortunately, the appreciation and value of packaging is quickly eroded once the package is used up and transitions to its role as waste. Packaging and containers are the largest segment of municipal solid waste by product category (US EPA, 2014). Every year, at least 8 million tons of plastics pollute the oceans, equivalent to dumping one garbage truck's worth of content into the ocean every minute; this figure is projected to increase to four per minute by 2050 if no action is taken (World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company, 2016). Plastics do not biodegrade and continue to contaminate our oceans, marine life, and our food supply. In a study of 102 marine turtles, representing all seven species and sampled from three ocean basins, the presence of microplastics was present in every single turtle (Duncan et al., 2019). Whales are washing ashore dead with over 60 pounds of waste found clogging their intestines and stomach (Haag, 2018). Only 9% of discarded plastics are 9 recycled globally while 12% are incinerated and the rest are buried in landfills or polluting our natural environment (Geyer, Jambeck, & Law, 2017). Plastics' largest application is packaging which comprises 26% of its total volume (World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and McKinsey & Company, 2016). To make matters worse, recycling contamination is at an all-time high in the United States. In 1989, many cities introduced single-stream recycling which allowed Americans to throw all of their recyclables into one bin. This increased the convenience of recycling and decreased recycling collection costs. However, roughly 1 in 4 items placed in recycling containers are not recyclable, significantly increasing the cost to process them (Nwaogu, 2018). This is especially problematic since China, one of the world's largest importers of recyclable waste, declared that it will reject shipments that are more than 0.5% impure (Albeck-Ripka, 2018a). To put things in perspective, Recology in San Francisco, which is arguably the most advanced recycling facility in the US, has the lowest bale contamination rate at a rate of 5% --- but that still ten times China's acceptable contamination rate (Moffitt, 2018). Prior to the ban, many countries relied on sending their recyclables to China where contamination standards were low and pricing was competitive. In the 1990s, China gladly purchased recyclables from other nations as it was transitioning to becoming the world's