Bio-based and biodegradable materials have the potential to replace traditional petroleum-based plastics across a range of products and contribute to a more circular economy. However, the uptake of these materials will not succeed unless consumers, manufacturers, and regulators are convinced of their efficacy. Investigating performance and safety concerns put forward by academic and non-academic communities, this paper assesses whether these concerns are being adequately addressed by current policy and regulation. In addition, measures to overcome significant concerns are developed through a series of stakeholder engagement events, informed by the Prospex-CQI-and STIR methodology. Discussions across the stakeholder engagement events have highlighted several concerns that create barriers to market up-take of bio-based and biodegradable plastic products, including the continued confusion regarding terminology and resultant communication, difficulties in navigating the plethora of documents related to safety, the appropriateness of safety documents when applied to new products, and the overall suitability and sustainability of such materials as an alternative to traditional plastics. To overcome these concerns, a series of recommendations for research, policy, and practice are made with respect to the following key areas of concern: regulation and legislative instruments, material quality and performance, market penetration and availability, waste management infrastructure, sourcing and supply chain, communication and information provision, and material health and safety.

Increased education of consumers can be an effective tool for conservation of commercially harvested marine species when product labeling is accurate and allows an informed choice. However, generic labeling (e.g., as white fish or surimi) and mislabeling of seafood prevents this and may erode consumer confidence in seafood product labels in general. We used DNA barcoding to identify the species composition of two types of convenience seafood (i.e., products processed for ease of consumption): fish fingers (long pieces of fish covered with bread crumbs or batter, n = 241) and seafood sticks (long pieces of cooked fish, n = 30). In products labeled as either white fish or surimi, four teleost species were present. Less than 1.5% of fish fingers with species-specific information were mislabeled. Results of other studies show substantially more mislabeling (e.g., >25%) of teleost products, which likely reflects the lower economic gains associated with mislabeling of convenience seafood compared with whole fillets. In addition to species identification, seafood product labels should be required to contain information about, for example, harvesting practices, and our data indicate that consumers can have reasonable confidence in the accuracy of the labels of convenience seafood and thus select brands on the basis of information about current fisheries practice.

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Supplementary Methods: Identifying literatureIn June 2019, we searched three databases, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Knowledge, for relevant literature. Searches used the following Boolean search string: (seafood OR aquaculture OR fisher*) AND ((business OR company OR economic) AND (model OR plan OR case)). Here, it is noted that the search was limited to an article's title, abstract and keywords. In addition, a timeframe of 10 years (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) was applied to the search to ensure that only recent business models are included. Over three thousand (n=3,710) articles were identified, with the corresponding citations imported into the reference management software, EndNote X9 (Clarivate Analytics). Any duplicate citations, for example the same article identified by a different database, or a report later published as a peer-reviewed journal article, were first removed. Where an article was later published in a peer-reviewed source, we removed the original (non-peer-reviewed) article. For the remaining 2,845 references, we searched for and downloaded the full texts, both through open access and institutional access at the University of Manchester. Over two selection stages, we applied inclusion and exclusion criteria (Supplementary Table 1) to the 771 articles with full texts. The first selection stage applied the criteria to the titles and abstracts only and retained 376 articles, while the second selection stage applied the criteria to the whole paper retaining 73 articles (for full bibliographic details see Supplementary Table 2). Supplementary Table 1: Inclusion-exclusion criteria.

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Over-consumption within a linear economy has been recognised internationally as a barrier to sustainability and a major cause of environmental degradation and economic disparity. To address these issues, the transition towards a circular economy (CE) has been advocated. A broad resource efficiency concept, the CE seeks to reduce consumption, encourages the reuse and recycling of materials and products, and encompasses the three pillars of sustainable development; economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social equity. Efforts to implement the CE have seen the introduction of various hierarchies that prioritise the implementation of R-imperatives (such as the '3Rs' of reduce, reuse, recycle). One such example is the waste hierarchy, originally introduced to encourage sustainable waste management and more recently reiterated by the EU Circular Economy Package as a means to stimulate the transition to the CE. Following the development of a CE Framework, this study presents a content analysis of the waste strategies of the four devolved nations of the United Kingdom. Key differences and similarities in the strategies of the four devolved nations are identified and discussed in light of CE aims, core concepts and principles (with particular focus on promotion of the waste hierarchy), enablers, and stakeholder engagement, where Scotland and Wales were found to have the most progressive strategies. This study also considers the potential impact of Brexit, where it is recommended an overarching UK-wide strategy that provides consistent and collaborative long-term objectives is required to replace the overarching objectives previously supplied by the EU policy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many social and economic problems in Hispanic America, a region with fragile health and economic systems and many inequalities. The pandemic has negatively influenced various aspects of life and led to changes in various habits and behaviours, including consumption. However, the extent to which the pandemic has influenced households, and waste production, in particular, is not well known. In this context, this paper reports on a study aimed at identifying changes in waste production across households under the special conditions created by the pandemic in Hispanic America. The majority of the respondents stated that their level of satisfaction with waste management policies in their countries did not change much during the pandemic. Only a few stated that they were more satisfied than before. Overall, the results suggest that, like previous crises, the COVID-19 outbreak may generate changes regarding household consumption and waste management in Hispanic America. At the same time, these findings stress the need to improve waste management practices. Some measures that may be adopted to allow Hispanic American countries to better cope with increases in waste production in times of pandemics are listed.

Over the last two decades, the stated intent of European waste management strategy has evolved from a specific focus on landfill diversion to enabling the transition to a circular economy.. Widespread introduction of source-segregation alongside deployment of material recovery technologies have improved MSW management practices across Europe. However, with diminishing returns it has become more difficult to achieve further landfill diversion through increased recycling alone, and incineration rates (across the EU-27 as a whole) have continued to increase. The advantages of incineration include the ability to harness the energy content of the waste alongside a sizeable reduction in mass and volume. However, the remaining solid residues, the most substantial being incinerator bottom ash, present a management issue. Exploring the role of incineration and the utilisation of incineration bottom ash, this paper highlights the potential risks of lock-in in the context of evolving waste policy. A simple thought experiment suggests that while increased use of incineration may help member states achieve 2035 landfill diversion targets, it would also carry a substantive risk of placing the 2035 recycling target out of reach. To address this, a long-term vision concerning the future of incineration is required, where it is recommended that policy which focuses on landfill diversion and the recycling of residual wastes should be strengthened through mechanisms that gradually phase out incineration and distinguish between open and closed-loop recycling.