Household waste sorting at the source is an essential part of the waste management system in many countries. Correct sorting of this waste, including food packaging waste, is cost-effective, it facilitates the recycling process and enhances the quality of the recycled product. Although there is a growing body of research that studies the effect of different attributes of food packaging on household recycling behavior, the effect of these attributes on the sorting of the food packaging waste is not well known. This contribution reviews work that studies the relationship between attributes of food packaging and consumer sorting behavior. The review highlights the potential of the visual attributes and the quality of packaging as a communication channel for encouraging consumers to sort the food packaging waste. The efficiency of the waste management system and the quality of recycled products can hence be affected by the proper design of food packaging.Sustainability 2019, 11, 4350 2 of 23 waste management scheme, and in particular in sorting at the source, have been discussed in previous studies [1,6,[16][17][18][19][20][21]. For example, the fractions that are obtained when sorting at the source (e.g., glass, plastic, and paper) have a higher quality compared to fractions obtained when sorting at MRFs, and the source separation process is less expensive [1,3,19]. Hence, correct sorting of waste fractions can increase material recycling and contribute to a circular economy.Among the different fractions of HSW, food packaging is of interest due to the increasing amount of this type of waste. Also, food packaging is estimated to be more than one-third of the total global packaging market [22,23]. However, the amount of recycled food packaging waste still is not sufficient. For instance, in 2017 only 56% of the 4.4 million tons of packaging waste that was generated in Australia was recycled [24]. In the United States of America, in 2015 the recycling rate of packaging waste and containers was 53% and over 23% of packaging waste was landfilled [25]. In Sweden, approximately 60% of household mixed waste still contains recyclable packaging waste [3]. On a global scale, this amount of un-recycled food packaging waste, especially plastic packaging, can significantly harm the environment [26,27]. This impact could be reduced by proper waste sorting. Proper sorting of food packing, irrespective of whether it is plastic, paperboard, or metal, allows the material to be recycled instead of being used for energy recovery, landfilling, or dumping. Thus, food packaging waste could be a valuable resource that would have lower environmental impacts if it is sorted according to the type of the material that was used to make the packaging [1,3]. In addition, the positive correlation between increasing urbanization and packaging consumption is expected to continue [26]. This is likely to lead to a greater amount of food packaging waste in the future. It is therefore important to motivate consumers to participate in the waste sorting s...

Food packaging waste is a valuable resource for material recovery, if it is properly separated and sorted by consumers. The packaging itself may have the potential to assist consumer sorting by, for example, communicating a correct sorting practice. This is partly due to the fact that the sorting of packaging waste, which is a habitual behavior of consumers, can be perceived as being confusing and inconvenient. Consumers can, therefore, choose not to sort. It is argued that material recovery could be enhanced if packaging can afford easy and proper sorting and separation. To investigate the potential of packaging to support proper sorting, six types of yogurt and cream packaging were examined across 15 households in Karlskrona (a medium-sized Swedish city). The aim is to investigate the effect of selected packaging attributes on consumer decisions regarding waste sorting. The results reveal that some of the selected packaging waste is not properly separated and sorted. It is concluded that the design of food packaging based on user-centered needs could affect consumer decisions for the proper sorting of packaging waste, which enables improved material recovery. The design should focus especially on the package’s visual attributes, the material selection, and the package´s waste sorting related functions.

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It is widely acknowledged that environmental impacts from packaging waste depend on how consumers sort this waste fraction. In this research, “design for sustainable behavior” (DfSB) strategies are used to improve a cream packaging design that can support proper sorting of packaging waste as a sustainable behavior. The application of three DfSB strategies—“match”, “steer”, and “force”—was examined through circular interviews and practical experience with two groups of participants in Karlskrona, Sweden. Prototyping was used to provide a more realistic experiment and enhance communication during the interviews. The results show that consumer-packaging interaction during the usage phase is important to enhance proper sorting behavior. The results also show the potential of a user-centered design-based approach to study consumer-packaging interaction and to understand the challenges faced by users when sorting packaging waste. It also shows the possibility of packaging design to script consumer behavior and reveals details that are important when designing packaging that was not known. In this vein, packaging form, color, and haptic attributes are the most influential design attributes that can support packaging functionalities and script consumer sorting behavior.

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