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This article is not about plastic pollution
It is commonly known that plastic pollution is a concern. Google returns roughly 180 million results in less than a second if you type it in. Plastic pollution is not the topic of this essay. It’s all about the answers.
Infarm eliminates transportation packaging by growing fresh food directly in supermarkets, eateries and distribution facilities throughout the globe. Image courtesy of diephotodesigner.de
The fact that we cannot remove plastic from the ocean at the pace we are putting it in and that we cannot recycle our way out of this crisis is now abundantly clear. It is not a long-term solution to bury it in the earth, and burning it is wasteful and extremely polluted. Therefore, we must approach this issue differently. We need to prevent the creation of garbage in the first place rather than attempting to manage an existing pile of rubbish.
Spoiler alert: the circular economy is the solution. With regard to plastics, this entails getting rid of all the plastic we can, reusing as much as we can thanks to innovative business models, and recycling the remainder. Plastic is an extremely valuable and adaptable material, yet we currently discard between 80 and 120 billion dollars’ worth of it annually. Plastic won’t pollute the environment if we keep it out of the economy.
We must reconsider how we produce and use plastic in order to do this. Therefore, we must direct our innovation efforts upstream, to the design phase. The crucial word here is design. Waste and pollution must be designed out.
To do this, we must innovate upstream and go beyond making little changes to single-use packaging. We must be willing to rethink every aspect of the plastics system, toss out the manual, and dare to transform the economy. Achieving the main circular economy objectives of elimination, reuse, and material circulation requires rethinking products, packaging, and business models.
Rethinking the product
Rethinking the product’s concept, how it is created, or whether the same value can be supplied in a different size or shape are all examples of waste-reduction design. Product design innovation can alter the requirements for packaging while preserving or even enhancing the user experience. It might do away with the requirement for packaging or alter the kind of packaging that is necessary so that it can be rendered compostable, recyclable, or reusable.
Lush Cosmetics used upstream innovation to redesign their products and eliminate packaging waste as an actual case study. Lush did away with bottles, containers, and tubes for many of its goods by creating shampoo, soap, and other personal care items in solid form rather than liquid. More than 90 million throwaway shampoo bottles have been saved since Lush started selling over 38 million naked shampoo bars worldwide in 2007.
But redesigning the product doesn’t have to be that profound; it can just be a sensible strategy to do away with packaging. For instance, Samsung’s designers noticed they could eliminate the need for protective film packaging by redesigning its phone chargers to have a matte surface rather than a glossy one.
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Rethinking the packaging
The next step in rethinking packaging is to consider its concept, format, components, and material selection. This could be an additional approach to designing waste out through upstream innovation while still fulfilling the same crucial role. It can entail switching to recyclable packaging or implementing fresh, cutting-edge materials like edible coatings on fresh foods or dissolvable packaging.
The revolutionary packaging idea was developed by the ground-breaking project HolyGrail to aid in the movement of materials. The invention makes it possible to add virtually invisible watermarks to packaging that can cover the full surface of the product without obstructing the design or labelling. High resolution cameras that transmit digital information, such as the composition of the material, can recognise the watermarks. This upstream invention makes it possible for collection, sorting, and recycling devices to operate more effectively and generate recycled materials of greater quality.
In order to create reusable bottles, The Coca-Cola Company in Latin America used upstream innovation at the packaging level. The corporation can collect a multi-branded mix of old PET bottles, take them back to the bottling facilities, remove the paper labels, clean the bottles, refill them, and rebrand them with new labels by developing reusable PET bottles with standardised designs across numerous Coca-Cola brands. By making the bottle reusable, 1.8 billion single-use bottles won’t be produced in Latin America in 2019.
Rethinking the business model
When using upstream innovation at the system design level, delivery models, supplier networks, production sites, or income streams may be taken into consideration. The requirements for packaging can alter if these aspects of the business strategy are rethought, just like the product.
Opendesk Furniture is a prime illustration. Opendesk developed a worldwide firm with localised production by reimagining the typical furniture retailer’s business model; it sells designs rather than actual furniture. A global platform, Opendesk works with independent designers from all over the world to produce designs that can be downloaded and shared. Customers can order furniture from local professionals who manufacture it on demand using the internet portal. As a result, there will be much less shipping, shorter lead times, and only a brief last-mile delivery using reusable blanket wraps whenever possible. The plastic film and cardboard needed in a conventional model for transport and storage will also be unnecessary.
Infarm, a hyperlocal production strategy for selling fresh food like herbs and leafy greens, is another illustration of a creative business model that does away with transit packaging. Ingenious, modular ‘farms’ that are located inside the stores cultivate the produce. Using cloud-based technology, Infarm installs the farms and remotely manages and keeps an eye on each one. Since freshly picked product keeps its freshness for a longer period of time thanks to the hyperlocal supply chain approach, less food waste and packaging are generated. In stores, eateries, and distribution facilities all around Japan, the US, Canada, and Europe, there are already more than 900 farms.
Business benefits of upstream innovation
Upstream innovation in the quest of a circular economy has a variety of potential advantages for businesses in addition to being an efficient strategy to combat plastic pollution. First off, it can assist companies in offering the solutions that clients need. Public awareness of plastic pollution is high, and consumers are increasingly able to tell the difference between genuine remedies and phoney “green” marketing schemes. Businesses should adapt to the needs of this changing industry to avoid falling behind. Governments all across the world are also passing measures to address plastic trash. Getting ahead of the curve before new regulations force them to do so is advantageous for businesses.
Utilising upstream innovation to create new product delivery methods can result in cost savings, a rise in brand loyalty, and enhanced customer convenience in addition to helping businesses adapt to a changing market. Because carbon emissions are frequently eliminated when waste is designed out, it can also assist brands in achieving their emissions goals.
The importance of firms making visible efforts in this area is growing as efforts to combat plastic waste quickly gain steam; it is better to be viewed as a pioneer than a laggard. Through the Global Commitment and the Plastic Pact network, more than 1,000 organisations from all over the world—including those that produce more than 20% of the plastic packaging used in the world—have already backed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s shared vision for a circular economy for plastic.
A new guide on upstream innovation from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is out now. It contains over 110 real-world examples of enterprises using upstream innovation to implement circular economy ideas, as well as tonnes of useful business advice. Here is a link to a book on packaging solutions called Upstream Innovation.