We cannot imagine a world without plastics. Plastic products make our daily life safe, healthy and convenient. Besides all the benefits, the current plastics economy gives rise to environmental concerns with respect to fossil oil depletion and plastic waste accumulation. In a circular economy, however, plastics can be redesigned for reusability and recyclability. This book makes the topic of sustainable plastics approachable for students and career starters alike, describing the nature and chemistry of (bio)polymers as well as how to create a closed loop of plastic materials.

This book provides an overview of a circular economy. This model has profound consequences for production, employment, education, money & finance but also induces a shift in public policy and taxation. Its economic advantage lies in designing out waste and favouring radical resource productivity with the prospect of rebuilding capital & resilience.

While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of breakthroughs on additive manufacturing for plastic material recycling to boost a circular economy. It offers new ideas of combining/hybridizing processing methods that work as a source of information for manufacturers in making new and strategic product development plans. Additive Manufacturing for Plastic Recycling: Efforts in Boosting a Circular Economy provides a critical, comprehensive, methodological, and strong state-of-the-art work on the processing of thermoplastic and thermosetting along with new directions and applications. It describes the common and hybrid approaches of recycling processes and includes theoretical and practical ideas of combining/hybridizing processing methods with the use of fused deposition modelling, which is one of the low-cost additive manufacturing techniques. The book also discusses mechanical twin-screw extrusion followed by case studies for developing hybrid composite structures for biomedical and structural applications. Recent innovations in melt processing for recycling and the fundaments, process parameters investigations, and applications for new product development are also presented. This book is a first-hand reference source of information for academic scholars and commercial manufacturers for making strategic development plans for new product development.

This open access book summarizes research being pursued within the SISCODE (Society in Innovation and Science through CO-DEsign) project, funded by the EU under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to set up an analytical, reflective and learning framework to explore the transformations in initiatives and policies emerging from the interaction between citizens and stakeholders. The book provides a critical analysis of the co-design processes activated in 10 co-creation labs addressing societal challenges across Europe. Each lab as a case study of real-life experimentation is described through its journey, starting from the purpose on the ground of the experimentation and the challenge addressed. Specific attention is then drawn on the role of policies and policy maker engagement. Finally, the experimentation is enquired in terms of its output, transformations triggered within the organization and the overall ecosystem, and its outcomes, opening the reasoning towards the lessons learnt and reflections that the entire co-creation journey brought.

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century that requires innovative and varied solutions. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this book brings together interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder perspectives exploring challenges and opportunities for utilising digital innovations to manage and accelerate the transition to a circular plastic economy (CPE). This book is organised into three sections bringing together discussion of environmental conditions, operational dimensions and country case studies of digital transformation towards the circular plastic economy. It explores the environment for digitisation in the circular economy, bringing together perspectives from practitioners in academia, innovation, policy, civil society and government agencies. The book also highlights specific country case studies in relation to the development and implementation of different innovative ideas to drive the circular plastic economy across the three sub-Saharan African regions. Finally, the book interrogates the policy dimensions and practitioner perspectives towards a digitally enabled circular plastic economy. Written for a wide range of readers across academia, policy and practice, including researchers, students, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), digital entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multilateral agencies, policymakers and public officials, this book offers unique insights into complex, multilayered issues relating to the production and management of plastic waste and highlights how digital innovations can drive the transition to the circular plastic economy in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.