PMR delivers key insights on the global plastic waste management market in its revised report titled ‘Plastic Waste Management Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013 – 2017 and Forecast, 2018 – 2026.’ The long-term outlook on the global plastic waste management market will remain positive with the plastic waste management market value expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.9% during the forecast period 2018 – 2026. According to the resin type, the thermoplastic segment is expected to register healthy growth during the forecast period with the generation of a high amount of plastic waste from industries. Based on the source of waste collection, the container & packaging segment is expected to witness a significant CAGR in terms of volume and value during the forecast period. Sales of plastic waste management in the global market is estimated to reach US$ 33,681.2 Mn by the end of 2018, witnessing a Y-o-Y growth of 3.2% over 2017. North America and Europe are collectively expected to account for over a 2/5th share in the global plastic waste management market by the end of 2018 and retain their position in the plastic waste management market during the forecast period. Get Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11545 Global Plastic Waste Management Market Dynamics Growing end user demand for a higher content of recycled plastic in bottles is expected to boost the growth of the plastic waste management market over the forecast period. Utilization of recycled content in packaging reduces the environmental footprint of the package and incentivizes recycling. Various brand owners have shown strong commitment towards utilizing post-consumer recycled content in their products and packaging solutions, while ensuring that their products are compatible to be recycled with existing products. Limited market communication and value chain coordination is expected to be the key factor restraining the growth of the global plastic waste management market over the forecast period. The plastic waste value chain is highly fragmented and comprises various sectors, diverse and often mutually exclusive range of polymers and diversity in potential end-uses. The quality and quantity of the material flowing though the value chain is limited by coordination and lack of communication along the value chain. Utilization of plastic waste for the construction of roads is one of the key trends identified in the plastic waste management market across the globe. Various organizations across the globe are focusing on the development of plans to build houses utilizing plastic bottles to provide environment-friendly houses. Global Plastic Waste Management Market Forecast On the basis of resin type, market insights suggest that the thermoplastic segment will continue to dominate the plastic waste management market during the forecast period followed by thermosetting segment.  On the basis of nature of service, the processing segment followed by disposal segment is projected to dominate the plastic waste management market in terms of values and volumes during the forecast period. On the basis of source of waste collection, packaging & container segment to remain dominant throughout the forecast period in the global plastic waste management market. The North America Plastic Waste Management market is dominate the global plastic waste management market throughout the forecast period. The rest of Europe is expected to dominate the Europe plastic waste management market, owing to the landfill ban across various countries in the region. The India plastic waste management market is expected to register the highest growth over the forecast period. Global Plastic Waste Management Market: Competitive Landscape Some of the market participants included in the report are B. Schoenberg & Co., Inc., Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies, Inc., Replas, Clear Path Recycling, PLASgran Ltd., Custom Polymers, Inc., CarbonLITE Industries, Luxus Ltd., wTe Corporation, KW Plastic, Inc., Kuusakoski Group, Shanghai Pret Composites Co., Ltd., Republic Services, Inc., Reprocesses Plastic, Inc., 4G Recycling Inc., Vanden Global Ltd., TerraCycle, The WasteCare Group and Veolia Environmental SA.

The structure and shape of strings make them difficult and costly to recycle. But that hasn’t stopped some manufacturers from tackling the challenge, and even extracting metal from old strings to use in new ones, writes Tom Stewart

Like the infamously difficult-to-recycle disposable coffee cup, strings are composite items, and their wiry, flexible form makes it tricky to process them in traditional machinery. Far removed from their humble origins as single pieces of animal gut, modern strings usually contain one or more different metals, often surrounding a core made of steel, gut, or more frequently a synthetic material. Take, for example, the E string of Thomastik Infeld’s Peter Infeld violin strings. Players can choose between a tin-plated carbon steel core and a stainless steel core with either gold or platinum plating. Or how about D’Addario’s Helicore cello strings, which feature a multi-stranded steel core wound, depending on the pitch of the string, in titanium or a combination of tungsten and silver. ‘All these metals are easily recyclable individually,’ says D’Addario’s Brian Vance. ‘When you have to smelt them down together, though, it very quickly stops making financial sense to separate them back out again into their component parts. It’s good for the environment but it doesn’t tend to make you any money.’ Another limiting factor, as Alex Payne of US recycling firm TerraCycle explains, is the strings’ shape. ‘They’re long, thin and bendy, so they routinely tie up the shredders that are usually employed to process materials for recycling,’ he says. ‘To avoid having to build different shredders, we compress the strings before we prepare them for smelting.’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of string makers I contacted suggested that recycling strings was an environmental red herring. Due to the transportation required to move strings between them, the consumer and the factory, these manufacturers say any environmental benefits would be lost. In other words, they do not recycle strings because of their commitment to sustainability. ‘Returning the strings to us in Denmark would require scrap metal to be shipped around the world, which isn’t something we support,’ says Ole Wichmann of Larsen Strings. ‘When customers ask us about this, we recommend they use whatever recycling solutions are available to them locally.’ For-Tune Strings, based in Beijing, has also considered the merits of recycling used strings, but decided against it on environmental and technological grounds. ‘From our point of view, the benefits of string recycling do not account for the energy required to ship the strings back to the manufacturer,’ says For-Tune’s research and development manager Curdin Coray.

‘Being long, thin and bendy, strings routinely tie up the shredders that are usually employed to process materials for recycling’– Alex Payne, TerraCycle  

On the other hand, D’Addario launched a recycling programme with TerraCycle in 2016 called Playback. Although the scheme is only available to customers in the US, it has already recycled more than six million strings. TerraCycle, which describes itself as ‘the global leader in collecting and repurposing hard-to-recycle waste’, processes complex items like Pringles tubes and contact lens packaging, often working in partnership with producers to offer consumers a way to recycle items that municipal services are unable to accept. ‘Playback allows customers to send us any strings produced by any manufacturer,’ says Vance. ‘Then we pass them on to TerraCycle for processing. The whole thing is funded entirely by us.’ It should be clear by this point that recycling a string is an expensive business, so why do it? I put Coray’s point about energy use to Payne, who responds that recycling always prevents an item from ending up as waste. And, he says, since ‘more than 90 per cent’ of the energy used in manufacturing is expended processing raw materials, recycling is almost always a means of reducing energy consumption. Although D’Addario and TerraCycle accept all strings made from metal or synthetics for recycling, the majority of those they receive are guitar strings, a large proportion of which are 100 per cent nylon. ‘After the strings with metal components have been removed, the nylon ones are melted down and turned into pellets for a range of industrial plastic applications, like manufacturing the fleecy material used to line the ceiling of a car,’ Payne explains. All strings, regardless of their composition, have to be compacted before they are melted in an extruder, a stage of the process for which TerraCycle had to design and implement an additional piece of machinery. As Vance pointed out, separating out the numerous metals from which strings are constructed, while technically possible, is economically unsustainable. Instead, TerraCycle uses the molten alloys to create ingots that can be sold to manufacturers of new products, like car wheel rims, that require similar chemical compositions. Synthetic cores at the centre of many strings cannot be separated from their metal surroundings, but are simply vaporised as a result of the extreme temperatures required. Larsen’s and For-Tune’s concerns about transportation appear to be shared by D’Addario, but there are ways, they say, to keep financial and environmental costs down. ‘Once players have collected at least two pounds’ worth of used strings, they can download a pre-paid postage label from the website and use it to send the strings to us,’ says Vance. ‘Having them send the strings in bulk reduces the cost and the carbon footprint of the operation. We encourage people to send not just their own strings, but those of their friends, school and orchestra, too.’ Anyone who finds this impractical can deposit their strings in special bins at hundreds of locations across the US. ‘There’s a Playback bin at every branch of Music & Arts, and hundreds more at independent retailers and instrument makers,’ Vance explains. hese numbers make clear the scale of D’Addario’s operation, which would clearly be beyond the means of most string makers, many of which – in Europe at least – are still run as smaller-scale family businesses. D’Addario, on the other hand, is the world’s largest manufacturer of strings for musical instruments, and produces tens of millions of them each year. In other words, they may be able to take a significant financial hit in exchange for the marketing boost that this kind of corporate social responsibility is likely to generate, while the same cannot necessarily be said of small businesses. The question remains, too, why another firm would take on the burden when D’Addario’s scheme covers strings sold by all manufacturers.

Separating out the numerous metals from which strings are constructed, while technically possible, is economically unsustainable

According to BDSV, an industry body for German steel recycling firms, around a quarter of the steel produced worldwide between 2014 and 2018 was recycled from scrap; the rates for certain other metals, such as aluminium, are even higher. If the wholesale recycling of instrument strings poses too great a challenge (or is taken care of elsewhere), can manufacturers improve the environmental impact of their operations by using recycled materials in their products? Coray is sceptical: ‘Using recycled materials affects the final product and turns string making into an even more difficult and challenging science,’ he says. As the complexity of the alloys and physical constructions used by string manufacturers shows, advances in the industry often come down to highly engineered combinations of very specific materials. String manufacturers appeal to players by claiming that their strings offer desirable qualities like improved response time, an expanded spectrum of tonal colours or the ability to help the quietest note carry to the back of the concert hall. To separate their products from the rest, they spend considerable time and resources testing different proportions of metals in the alloys they use for the cores, coatings and windings. Using recycled materials would undermine these processes and disrupt the uniformity of the finished product. Or would it? Coray and Wichmann explain that, although For-Tune and Larsen do not recycle used strings, they do melt down and reuse scrap metals generated by their manufacturing processes, demonstrating that recycled metals do have a place in string making after all. Slovakian maker Warchal goes one step further, inviting players to return their used Warchal strings so that the silver component can be extracted and used again in the manufacture of new strings. ‘Our scheme is different from D’Addario’s because we use the recycled metals ourselves,’ explains Klaudia Warchal. ‘Not only that,’ she says, ‘but we actually use the silver we collect to make new strings. The process we use to remove the silver doesn’t upset its atomic structure in a way that affects its quality, so we can use it without adjusting our usual “recipe”.’ Although only the silver components are currently redeployed, the company is also building up stocks of other metals recovered from their strings, and hopes one day to use these, too. The ‘Warchal Goes Green’ initiative began in 2012, providing players with credit to spend on new strings in return for their old ones. After seven years of collecting and processing the metals, in 2019 the company launched its Phoenix violin strings – the first commercially available set to include metal recycled from strings that have already been played. ‘I don’t want to sound mystical,’ says Klaudia Warchal, ‘but because the silver has already vibrated with great music in concert halls around the world, we think it adds special value to the strings.’ Although they are a little more expensive than most of the manufacturer’s other products, Warchal says the Phoenix set are currently its best-sounding violin strings. And, unlike D’Addario’s Playback programme, Warchal’s scheme is open to players all over the world – as long as they play Warchal strings.

‘Because the silver has already vibrated with great music in concert halls around the world, we think it adds special value to the Phoenix strings’ – Klaudia Warchal

Amid the ever greater acceptance of the need to recycle more of what we use, it’s clear that some string manufacturers are finding a role for themselves as advocates for recycling and pioneers of new uses of recycled materials. D’Addario has shown that, with enough investment, the complex, composite nature of an instrument string doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled in its entirety into new products, albeit unrelated ones. And although Warchal doesn’t yet have the ability to reuse all the component materials of its strings in its own manufacturing process, its use of recycled silver in new strings is an exciting development. It’s clear, however, that not everyone thinks that recycling offers a sustainable way forward, though such views often seem to be based on doubts over recycling’s economic viability. The success of Warchal’s and D’Addario’s initiatives have shown, though, that environmentally engaged players are keen to help manufacturers conserve energy and materials, while technologies like those developed by TerraCycle may one day pave the way for more string manufacturers to explore how recycling could benefit them, their customers, and the environment.

In spite of a recent uptick in single-use products, the research shows that even a global pandemic can’t shake consumers’ desire to make sustainable choices when it comes to food and food packaging. “Conscious consumption was gaining traction before and COVID has only accelerated that,” says analyst Shelley Balanko, senior vice-president at the Hartman Group. “Consumers are looking for foods that are sourced in sustainable ways—and produced and packaged in a way that’s in accordance with their values.” According to a 2020 U.S. survey by global management consulting firm Kearney, 48% of respondents said the pandemic has made them more concerned about the environment, and 55% said they were now more likely to purchase environmentally-friendly products. The survey also showed an 85% increase in consumers who planned to decline plastic utensils with food orders and a whopping 164% increase in those who were planning to buy more items in bulk. Whereas shoppers may have focused on sustainable packaging pre-pandemic, Balanko says now that they’ve gotten “up close and personal” with the fact our food supply chain isn’t infinite, they’re also looking at food waste and carbon impact when selecting products. She expects consumers will not only be looking to see if retailers are carrying sustainable brands, but whether they have sustainable programs in place at the store level, too. Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation at Innova Market Insights, says we can also expect to see some truly innovative developments in packaging coming down the pipe. “Making packaging compostable, biodegradable or easy to recycle will be more and more important going forward,” she says. A good example is SupraPulp, a plastic-free packaging made of sugarcane waste from Israeli food tech startup W-Cycle. Not only is it fully compostable and toxin-free, but it’s durable enough for greasy, wet or hot food and can be frozen or heated. During these pandemic times especially, Williams says packaging with antimicrobial properties (which can kill foodborne diseases) are gaining particular favour. (A European Union-funded project called NanoPack has already produced one successful option.) Even big-name brands are looking to mitigate plastic in landfills by turning to more sustainable packaging solutions. This year, Johnnie Walker launched a paper-based whisky bottle, while PepsiCo is using aluminum cans instead of plastic for its Aquafina water brand. For those retailers still hesitating to implement sustainable programs into their business strategies now, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (a U.K.-based charity focused on inspiring a circular economy) estimates that converting just 20% of plastic packing into re-use models (such as refill and return packaging options) is a US$10-billion global opportunity. According to the Foundation’s 2019 Reuse: Rethinking Packaging report, reuse models can cut down on packaging and transportation costs, improve user experience and build loyalty. Reuse and recycling programs at work Some of Canada’s grocery giants have already made concerted efforts to go sustainable, especially when it comes to products and packaging. This year, Sobeys released its first sustainability report establishing “key action pillars” of People, Planet and Products to steer its future strategies. Part of that is the commitment to reduce food waste, maximize recycling efforts and make it easier for customers to reuse in general. The retailer has already introduced reusable mesh produce bags (partially made from recovered plastic found in oceans), in all Sobeys, Safeway, IGA and Foodland stores. It’s also working with Dartmouth, N.S.- based LakeCity Plastics to turn plastic bags into waterfront benches and tables for installation in public spaces across Atlantic Canada. This project will help divert 720,000 plastic bags from landfills. Last year TerraCycle—a global company that offers free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers—partnered with Loblaw in using its Loop platform, which gives consumers the option to get commonly used products delivered to their door in branded, sustainable packaging that is later collected, cleaned, refilled and reused. “Loblaw is our exclusive grocery retail partner in Canada during the pilot phase … [and] ultimately, Loop’s goal is to be integrated into as many retailers and channels as possible to make the biggest impact,” says Anthony Rossi, executive vice-president of business development at TerraCycle & Loop. Loblaw will launch an online pilot program using Loop in the Greater Toronto Area in early 2021. (Just this past October, Tim Hortons announced it was partnering with Loop on a plan to offer reusable food and beverage containers at select Toronto stores in 2021.) Rossi encourages grocers to promote brands that use TerraCyle right on the landing page of their websites and in-store to prompt shoppers to make sustainable choices. “Retailers can partner with TerraCycle and the brands to offer compelling, emotionally engaging retail programs with simple, intuitive and accessible ways to recycle,” he adds. In the meantime, online grocers like SPUD.ca are using TerraCycle Zero Waste Boxes to recycle products for their customers. While the program is currently on hold during COVID-19, pre-pandemic shoppers simply left their empty packaging in the SPUD bin for pickup and the retailer would ship it back to TerraCycle in bulk. (Consumers can also drop off their used containers to any of the SPUD-owned Be Fresh Market and Cafés or Blush Lane Organic Markets located in British Columbia and Alberta.) SPUD has introduced several other recycling initiatives to its customers, including glass bottle distribution and pickup for milk and soap refills. Michelle Austin, SPUD’s sustainability lead, says the fact SPUD is doing the pickup removes the barrier of customers having to return containers to a store. “Customers are actually asking us to do more in this space and we’re responding,” she says. “We’re glad they see value in the zero waste that we do.” Focusing on food waste At Organic Garage, an independent grocer in Ontario, zero food waste initiatives have been a priority from the onset, says Randee Glassman, director of marketing. “We have a fantastic bulk program with up to 60 items,” she says. “We have amazing teas and spices in bulk, along with household cleaners and soaps.” Even with COVID-19, she says they’ve been able to bring the bulk program back by providing containers and featuring hand sanitizing stations throughout. The grocer also works with waste companies to ensure all vegetable trimmings and fruit waste are recycled into cattle feed. Inedible byproducts from its meat department (i.e., meat bones, discarded meat fats and store grease) are also transformed into both industrial and consumer fare. This whole idea of “upcycling” (or using food waste to create new products) is a trend that both analysts and retailers anticipate will gain momentum in the coming years as the effort to tackle the world’s 1.3 billion tons of annual food waste becomes a bigger priority. “We make an effort to identify and bring in upcycled products where available as it is a category that is growing,” says Anthony D’Addario, vice-president of operations at Nature’s Emporium in Ontario. He points to favoured brands like Barnana, which upcycles bananas to make sweet and savoury treats, and Outcast Foods, which makes protein powder and vitamins from imperfect produce. In fact, Outcast Foods is now working with Sobeys in Nova Scotia to divert the grocer’s unsellable fruits and veggies from landfills into quality products. This aligns with Sobeys’ pledge to reduce food waste across its operations by 50% by 2025. As more and more upcycled products come into the market, the expectation is that shoppers will want complete transparency, too. The Upcycled Food Association is in the process of developing a certification program that will allow qualified products to carry an identifying seal clearly showing they are upcycled or contain upcycled ingredients. Cutting carbon footprint It’s not surprising that shoppers concerned about climate change will be looking for food products with smaller carbon footprints. To that end, this year Panera became the first restaurant chain to partner with the World Resources Institute (WRI) in listing entrees on its menu as climate-friendly “Cool Food Meals.” Similar to recommended calories per day, the WRI has established a maximum recommended daily carbon footprint for a person’s diet, which is 38% smaller than the current average. While carbon labels on grocery products aren’t new, there’s been a resurgence of late in this area, with companies like Oatly and Quorn Food in the United Kingdom launching carbon label initiatives in 2020. To further raise awareness around the environmental impact of food, Swedish food company Felix opened a pop-up “Climate Store” in Stockholm in October and based all product prices on carbon footprint: the bigger the emission, the higher the price. The company is also starting to add low climate impact labels on products with emissions that are at least half of the average for food in Sweden. Nespresso is another manufacturer that recently announced plans to better tackle carbon emissions across its products and supply chain. Along with increasing the use of low-carbon virgin aluminum in its coffee capsules, the company has committed to planting trees in coffee farms and investing in forest conservation and restoration projects. The goal is for every cup of Nespresso coffee to be carbon-neutral by 2022. Sustainable next steps As manufacturers and suppliers address a growing trend towards sustainable products and packaging, grocers are, ultimately, tasked with helping consumers make sustainable choices. “One challenge with sustainability is the metrics can vary so it’s hard to say one product is more sustainable than another in absolute terms,” says Innova Market Insights’ Williams. “But there is always the opportunity to look for products that have attributes that are sustainable so shoppers looking for that could more easily find [them].” To keep sustainability initiatives on track, there’s also a need to make “sustainable choices the sustainable choice,” says Eli Browne, director of corporate sustainability at Sobeys. “[Consumers] may be asking for sustainable products but there is always that value pricing pressure, and we need to be able to respond accordingly to provide quality products at price points people can afford,” she explains, adding that this is both the challenge and opportunity in working with suppliers. Browne says there are instances where suppliers have come to Sobeys or vice-versa to come up with new innovations when it comes to sustainable packaging. “I think a great example is our cucumber trays, which went from a non-recyclable plastic to a molded fibre tray that can be recycled,” she says. “Now it’s grown to be an industry standard.” Along with providing shoppers with sustainable choices in products and packaging, there’s an onus on retailers to educate their customers in how to promote environmentally friendly habits at home too, adds Browne. “I see education and engaging customers to make the right choice going hand in hand,” she says. “Being in a retail space where people have to go to eat, we have that privilege and responsibility to be part of the solution.”