Development of a tailored approach to move towards a sustainable circular economy business model in the plastic film sector: the case of Balcan

总部设在加拿大的软包装薄膜和袋子公司Balcan遇到了越来越多的要求，要求该公司是否存在任何旧软包装的回收计划，以及该公司的产品组合是否包括使用回收内容的包装。除了增加的客户压力外，该公司还意识到，在其当前的线性商业模式中，存在着捕捉浪费价值的机会。但是，需要强有力的科学证据和指标来支持向新的循环商业模式的转变，并能够跟踪进展和引导业务朝着改进的方向发展。该项目旨在开发一种科学合理的方法来评估公司层面的循环潜力，同时确定负担转移的潜在风险，并支持波尔坎塑料有限公司制定一项基于稳健和相关指标的战略，以进入循环经济商业模式。目前的循环经济评估工具难以捕捉循环举措造成的不良影响，例如回收和循环过程中对能源的日益增长的需求，负担从资源节约转移到污染产生，以及消费者行为变化的无人关注的反弹影响。巴尔坎正在寻求一种以科学为基础的方法来设计和引导公司战略，使其朝着更循环和更少影响的商业模式发展，并确定下一步在研发和创新方面的相关努力，例如回收软包装技术、新的逆向物流系统等。项目计划包括：1)为选定的巴尔坎产品绘制当前合理的循环战略和场景；2)与他们的专家一起评估这些战略的技术经济可行性；以及3)评估循环性和生命周期环境概况，以了解在最大化循环性和最小化生命周期影响之间的权衡。

Balcan, a flexible packaging films and bags company based in Canada has experienced a growing number of requests about the existence of any take-back program of used flexible packaging and whether the product portfolio of the company includes packaging using recycled content. Beyond an increased customer pressure, the company also realizes that there is an opportunity in capturing the value that goes to waste in its current linear business model. But robust scientific evidence and metrics are needed to support a shift to a new circular business model and enable the tracking of progress and the ability to steer the business towards improvement. This Engage project aims to develop a scientific sound approach to assess the circularity potential at company level whilst identifying the potential risk of burden shifting and support Balcan Plastics Ltd, to develop a strategy building on robust and relevant metrics to move into a circular economy business model.Current circular economy assessment tools struggle to capture undesirable effects resulting from circular initiatives, such as a growing demand for energy in recovery and recycling processes, burden shifting from resource preservation to pollution generation and unattended rebound effects from behavioural change of consumers. Balcan is seeking for a science-based approach to design and steer the corporate strategy towards a more circular and less impacting business model and identify next relevant efforts in R&D and innovation, for instance on technologies for recycling flexible packaging, on new reverse-logistic systems, etc.The project plan includes: 1) mapping current plausible circular strategies and scenarios for selected Balcan products; 2) evaluating, along with their experts the technical-economic viability of the strategies, and, 3) evaluate the circularity and life cycle environmental profile to understand the trade-off between maximising the circularity and minimizing the life cycle impacts.