Plastic plays a significant role in food packaging as: it serves to meet product safety and quality requirements. However, some types of packaging remain difficult to recycle for a number of technological and practical reasons and are prone to littering.
Alongside industry efforts to develop innovative and eco- friendly packaging alternatives, consumer education can go a long way towards the prevention of littering and investment in collection and sorting processes will increase the potential for recycling.
EURACTIV organised this workshop to explore, in light of the ongoing policy discussions on single-use plastics, the opportunities and barriers for improving the sustainability of food packaging.