PetStar PET Bottle-to-Bottle Recycling System, a Zero-Waste Circular Economy Business Model

Abstract

The lack of environmental awareness in society, especially in developing countries, combined with inefficient waste handling systems, has caused millions of PET bottles to end up in landfills, losing their original value. In the worst cases, the bottles mishandled by consumers enter natural systems generating significant negative externalities such as the pollution of soil and water, with the possibility of reaching the oceans. In general, the plastic recycling industry in undeveloped economies is highly dependent on the participation of a broad social group known as scavengers, whose role is very valuable for the supply chain, although it is performed under very difficult conditions and usually operates as part of the informal economy. Maintaining the sustainability of the three actors involved in the industry—the environment, society and business—requires a different business model in which all actors must participate and produce a more inclusive added value. PetStar is a company that has designed and implemented a circular economy business model for PET bottles that is trying to achieve a dream for the recycling industry: to disengage the recycled bottle from virgin resources, avoiding the conversion of the packaging to waste, and operate a perennial cycle in the use of the packaging. The PetStar sustainable business model is presented, explaining how it works and how it creates a sustainable cycle that is economically feasible and competitive, environmentally resilient and socially shared among one of the poorest and most informal sectors, the scavenger and collector communities. This paper discusses a model of sustainable recycling that can be replicable in other developing countries where the same problem emerges, as well as how to generate a zero-waste circular value system that can be inclusive, clean, viable and capable of generating shared wealth for the community.