CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The scourge of plastic in oceans is one of the most evocative images of the sustainability movement. According to the UN, around 2,000 truckloads of plastic waste are dumped into Earth’ s oceans, rivers and lakes every day. This equates to more than 19 million tonnes of plastic a year.
Plastic pollution can affect habitats and natural processes, thereby reducing ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change. The ripple effect harms the livelihoods, food supply chains and well-being of millions of people.
Reducing the amount of plastic packaging used in our daily lives is one way to help cut its damaging impact on the environment. But this is not always possible, given that plastic is set to play a dominant role in our daily lives for years to come.
“ I started looking a little more into lifecycle assessments, sustainability and how our targets can be achieved through recycling”
Larissa Ogera D’ otaviano Sustainability Director Valgroup
To help reduce its environmental impact, there has been a more conscious effort in recent years to develop a circular economy for plastics. Recycling and reusing packaging in new ways has a two-fold benefit. Firstly, it cuts demand for virgin plastic materials. And second, it prevents plastic from entering the natural environment, such as oceans and rivers, which are today plagued by plastic pollution.
Circularity in practise Material circularity remains limited in the plastics sector, and large volumes of plastic waste still end up in landfills or are incinerated. These end-of-life pathways release embedded carbon and are a major source of Scope 3 emissions.
In Europe alone, the circular economy offers a business opportunity to unlock significant economic returns and decrease resource dependence at the same time as reducing pressure on the climate and the environment, according to the European Environment Agency’ s‘ Unlocking the circular economy: investment needs, barriers and enabling conditions’ report, published in May 2026.
Building on recent research, the EEA suggests that accelerated investment is needed to meet the objectives of the circular economy policies already adopted, with a gap of around € 2bn( US $ 2.34bn) each year for Europe up to 2040. Applying circular economy principles could boost EU GDP by 0.5 % by 2030, the EEA adds.
But plastics, recycling and the circular economy are global problems that require local solutions.
90 June 2026