Three Essays on Implementing a Sustainable Circular Economy for Plastics

Plastic is a valuable part of the consumer economy, but it creates negative environmental externalities throughout its lifecycle. To reduce these effects, a sustainable circular economy is needed, where more plastic is diverted from landfill or environmental sinks through reduction, reuse, recycling, or composting, while addressing social needs. Although many different stakeholders (industry, academia, policymakers) are calling for a sustainable circular economy for plastics, globally, less than 20% of plastic is recycled with no data on reduction and reuse. In this dissertation, a mixed methods approach is used to suggest how organizations related to the plastic industry can implement a sustainable circular economy. The first chapter identifies how firms across the plastic value chain can innovate to adopt a sustainable circular flow. A systematic review reveals over 300 examples, which are used to create a material flow typology. Findings summarize five critical points of innovation and indicate that innovation adoption is low. More concerted efforts are needed to improve innovation adoption and there is a need to shift innovation focus from resource efficiency to sustainability. The second chapters studies U.S. plastic recyclers’ price signals to generate evidence for favorable recycling policies. A hedonic analysis reveals recyclers preferences for recyclability – plastic properties that enable recycling. Results suggest that adequate recycling infrastructure and absence of virgin plastic can play an important role in facilitating more recycling. In the third paper, the role of governments as consumers is studied. As the largest consumers in a market, governments can signal a large demand for circular products and services, however public administration literature has paid limited attention to it. A theoretical framework is created to fill the knowledge gap and suggest how governments can use sustainable public procurement for a circular economy. A systematic literature review of the top ten public administration journals over 32 years reveals critical knowledge gaps and the potential for important sustainable public procurement research