Innovation Management of Plastic Waste for Sustainable Package for Fresh Produce Postharvest Handling

Innovation management within the context of the circular economy involves developing and implementing strategies to create sustainable and regenerative systems that minimize waste, reduce resource consumption, and promote the reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling of products and materials. The global issue of water bottle waste and its environmental impact it significant. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles can play a significant role in a circular economy. In a circular economy, the focus is on keeping materials and products in use for as long as possible and extracting maximum value from them. In view of this, the objective of this study is to create innovation in fruit packaging through the usage of recycled PET material. The results presented in this paper will focus on the first part of this ongoing, which is to design the structure through finite element analysis. The proposed packaging design serves as an innovative solution for fruit postharvest handling and logistics minimizing mechanical damage and costs. Future extension of this work could be in the optimization of the proposed spring shape structure in order to further improve the protection and therefore reduce the internal energy absorbed by the fruit.