The 3R strategy is one of the pillars of the circular economy. In any case, this is how the inventors of this concept, Michael Braungart and William McDonough, formulated it in the 1990s, observing that the linear consumption of resources was ultimately a dead end.
What do these three R’s mean? Reduce, reuse and recycle. Today, there is a lot of emphasis on recycling, which is admittedly a huge challenge in itself, knowing that the end goal is to get as close as possible to 100% recycling of all plastic materials. We are very far from it today: in a country like France, around 10% of plastic waste is recycled.
It is obvious that for an equal volume, this figure will jump in the coming years: on the one hand thanks to greater collection efficiency, but also thanks to the development of new technologies which will make it possible to recycle plastics for which there is no Today, there are still no suitable recycling techniques. Furthermore, at the legislative level, Europe is working to ensure that plastic products are, from the design stage, products to be recycled: it is therefore imperative to limit mixing of plastics as much as possible, the current nightmare of recyclers.
Reducing the production and consumption of plastics is the first pillar of this circular economy under construction: to make recycled plastics a competitive market product, it is imperative that the plastics industry limits its production. This will have the effect of limiting the amount of plastic waste to be collected and recycled, which will mechanically improve recycling efficiency. But above all, it will help make recycled plastic a competitive product compared to new plastic. This first pillar constitutes a significant challenge, as populations throughout the world are all dependent, at all levels, on plastics.
Then there is reuse. A bit like reducing consumption, reuse is a paradigm shift, for manufacturers and consumers. However, it is an important lever, which makes it possible to limit the production of plastic waste very early on. However, the re-use industry in France is now in its infancy, even if it has been developing more and more rapidly in recent years.
Finally, recycling. The final stage in the life cycle, this technique, which will make it possible to recover raw materials from waste, is in full expansion. Even if today some recycled materials sometimes have trouble being competitive, others are, and have seen sectors organize themselves to allow, in particular plastics, to extend their life cycle.
If recycling technologies will continue to progress and improve their performance, it is certain that to integrate plastics into a viable circular economy, it will also be necessary to make immense progress on the reduction of uses, and on reuse.
