​The Changing Landscape for Packaging Waste

Consumer products and their packaging generate a significant source of waste. In Canada, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled. Packaging represents 50% of plastic production with a typical lifespan of only six months. Combine increased awareness of environmental impact and the costs of managing packaging waste with resource scarcity, and the stage is set for a dramatic shift to consumer goods. This shift will change how goods are produced, how we consume them and what happens when they reach their end of life.

Opportunities in the Circular Economy

The transition from our current linear take-make-waste system to a circular economy offers many opportunities. For example, innovations in digital technology have some predicting that all physical products will soon be designed to be tracked from source to end-of-life, dramatically reducing the amount of waste generated across the supply chain. From robotics and artificial intelligence, consumer products will change a great deal in the years to come, and the implications for waste prevention are exciting.