The investment is part of the Enabling Research competition in the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge (SSPP). It aims to help tackle plastic waste in the UK.
The research-awarded funding aims to find solutions to existing issues with plastic packaging, reduce plastic pollution and unlock barriers to create fundamental changes in the industry.
The new project entitled Many Happy Returns has been awarded £1 million pounds by UKRI. Dr Rachael Rothman will be undertaking the research with collegaue from the University of Sheffield's Grantham Centre.
Recycling has become the norm for addressing our problem with plastic waste but recycling is challenging and encourages a throwaway culture. In order to change the focus from recycling to reuse Many Happy Returns will explore reusable packaging systems. In the UK alone plastic waste from single-use packaging amounts to an estimated 2.3 million tonnes every year.
By keeping packaging materials in circulation for as long as possible, the environmental impact of packaging could be reduced. One result would be a reduction in plastic waste. Another would be a reduction in the overall impact of the packaged product.
By identifying the best reuse model for different contexts, Many Happy Returns aims to make reusable packaging mainstream.
In order to do this this, the team will explore the optimum materials, process and technologies for reusable plastic packaging systems. And they will develop practices to encourage reuse.
One of the main output's of the project will be a guide for businesses on how to implement reuse models, thereby helping them to achieve UK Plastic Pact targets on reuse and help consumers to minimise plastic waste.
Many Happy Returns continues the work of the Grantham Centre's special project Plastics: Redefining Single Use.