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A sustainable future for plastics considering material safety and preserved value

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The positive benefits afforded by the widespread use of plastics need to be reconciled with negative impacts on the environment and health across the entire plastics life cycle. Optimizing the balance in several facets of plastics production, use and waste management is necessary for a more sustainable relationship with these materials in the Anthropocene.

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Fig. 1: Key considerations and principles to create a sustainable future for plastics.

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Acknowledgements

D.M.M. was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number PCEFP@_186856).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Denise M. Mitrano

  2. Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Martin Wagner

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  1. Denise M. Mitrano
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  2. Martin Wagner
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Correspondence to Denise M. Mitrano.

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Competing interests

M.W. is an unremunerated member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Food Packaging Forum and has received travel funding to attend annual board meetings. D.M.M. declares no competing interests.

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Principles of green chemistry and engineering: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry/principles.html

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Mitrano, D.M., Wagner, M. A sustainable future for plastics considering material safety and preserved value. Nat Rev Mater 7, 71–73 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00406-9

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