Our relationship with plastic needs to be rethinked. Plastics are versatile materials, but the way we use them is incredibly wasteful. We take oil and gas from the Earth to make plastic products that are often designed to be used only once, and then we throw them away. This is what we call a linear take-make-waste or ‘linear economy’ model.

Circular Economy is where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimised. It is an essential contribution of the country’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy. Eco-design means the integration of environmental aspects into product design with the aim of improving the environmental performance of the product throughout its whole life cycle including procurement, manufacture, use, and disposal.

No plastic should end up in the environment. Landfill, incineration, and waste-to-energy are not long term solutions that support a circular economy. Brand owners have a responsibility beyond the design and use of their packaging, which includes contributing towards it being collected and reused, recycled, or composted in practice. Plastic recycling is a crucial step towards a circular economy, but achieving circularity calls for action at every point in the lifetime of a product: from design to waste management & recycling. We focus on quality recycling by the application of chemical technology & polymer science.