The Role of Food Packaging Design in Consumer Recycling Behavior—A Literature Review

Abstract

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...

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