Which ‘levers’ work best for stopping the flow of plastic pollution? A new report, leveraging the science-based approach in Breaking the Plastic Wave, offers a roadmap for Norway’s plastic waste.
A new report shows combining upstream interventions, such as reduction and design for recycling, with downstream interventions, such as enhancing sorting and recycling, is critical for Norway to reach a zero-waste plastic system by 2040.
Our report, ‘Achieving Circularity: Creating a zero-waste circular plastic economy in Norway’, was produced in partnership with the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund (Handelens Miljøfond), and with support from Mepex and a panel of Norwegian experts. It adds up to a first-of-its-kind, full-system model of the Norwegian plastic system. This will help guide policymakers, industry executives, investors, and civil society representatives in reducing the country’s plastic footprint and moving towards a circular economy for packaging and other single-use plastics.
Norway was one of the first countries to create a national return system for plastic bottles. But only a quarter of the plastic consumed is recycled, and nearly all the rest is sent to waste-to-energy incineration. “Every Norwegian throws away an average of 101 kg of plastic every year: an almost unimaginable amount”, says Lars Brede Johansen of Handelens Miljøfond. “It is important to get an overview of how we use and consume plastic today, and map out how we can cut our consumption and use plastic in a better way. With this report, we know far more about which measures have the greatest environmental effect.”
Complementing the report is an open-access, online tool: Plastsimulator. Understanding all the trade-offs and impacts of changing the plastics system is complex. But Plastsimulator lets stakeholders create and test their own change scenarios and understand the economic, environmental, and social impacts of different interventions across the value chain.
Achieving Circularity applies Breaking the Plastic Wave’s approach to the Norwegian context, and suggests measures that can and must be implemented to create a circular plastic economy in Norway by 2040. taken together, these 10 interventions could achieve a 69% reduction in plastic waste. Virgin plastic use could decrease by 29% compared to today; greenhouse gas emissions from plastic can be reduced by 25%, incineration of plastic by 60% and plastic pollution by 80%.
System circularity can achieve all this with existing technologies, at comparable costs to the system – while fulfilling all consumer needs. There’s even a net increase in jobs. “The report identifies the strategies and actions that can be implemented to improve the Norwegian plastic system”, says Yoni Shiran, Partner and Plastics Lead at SYSTEMIQ. “It shows there is a clear opportunity for Norway to be a circularity leader, applying its capabilities towards innovation and action.”
