Plastic Waste Management for Zero Waste to Landfills: Potential, Challenges, and Opportunities

Linear economy reliance on plastic goods and materials produced by plastic industries translates into plastic pollution of all environmental compartments. The plastic goods reach a global market including remote regions while waste management performances are still limited all over the world, but particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This work aims to examine the plastic waste diversion from landfill-based traditional waste management systems toward zero-waste approach. In the first phase, it points out the critical steps in waste management practices to reduce environmental contamination with plastics. The plastic waste diversion from landfills is examined at downstream level to improve the plastic waste capture into circular mechanism (deposit return schemes, waste banks, reuse and recycling practices, recycling technologies, energy recovery). The upstream level is examined through emphasizing the role of circular business models in plastic industries, policy incentives (e.g., extended producer responsibility), regulatory framework (e.g., single-use plastic ban and restrictions), all supported by innovation. Secondly, the best practices from five countries (i.e., Romania, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, and Brazil) in different geographical areas might be able to reveal the current progress and challenges in the waste management sector with a focus on plastic fraction. Finally, alternatives to the use of plastics, like plant-based and compostable materials, glass bottles and refilling systems, or cardboard mono-material, are further examined as possible solution to replace the plastic materials in the packaging industries. While having into attention both the theoretical and practical levels, this study could prove to be useful in the process of supporting the implementation of pro-environmental policies and good practices aimed at decreasing the level of plastic pollution to landfills across societies.