The Identity of Recycled Plastics: A Vocabulary of Perception

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

The increasing consumption of plastics and plastic products results in correspondingly substantial volumes of waste, which poses considerable environmental burdens. With the ongoing environmental actions, the application of circular economy on this waste stream is becoming inevitable. In this paper, the topics of plastics recycling, circular economy on plastics, and challenges to plastic waste recycling are critically reviewed. In the first part of this paper, the development of research on plastic recycling was viewed from 1950 until 2020 using the scientific database Web of Science, and 682 related studies were found and used to assess the changing research priorities along that timeline. The following sections discuss the potentials and requirements to enhance the quality of the produced recycled plastic, in connection with the factors that currently limit it. In conclusion, the quality of recycled plastic is generally determined by the homogeneity of the recovered plastic feed. There are various strategies which could be implemented to overcome the hindrances identified in the paper and to improve the quality of the recycled plastic, such as working on enhanced product designs for minimised waste heterogeneity and controlling the materials’ degree of contamination by applying advanced sorting.

Human Perceptions of Recycled Textiles and Circular Fashion: A Systematic Literature Review

The textile and fashion industry has had significant technological developments but is currently criticised for its environmental and social impacts and for being a major contributor to waste. The rise of the circular economy (CE) has promoted more sustainable concepts, including the trending of recycling strategies to add value to the textile and plastic waste. However, adding value to products and for users implies technical upscaling and clear communication about the benefits of recycling. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) and explores the state of the art of recycled textiles (RT) and circular fashion (CF) as perceived by humans. The literature review was performed on the basis of journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers using the ScienceDirect (SD) and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The review identified that a significant proportion of consumers from different countries have a basic understanding of sustainable products but that there have been differences in consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable purchase, use, consumption, and post-purchase behaviour. Diverse and even contradictory results occurred concerning the relationships between RT and CF and their perceived product attributes in terms of quality and functionality, as well as social-cultural factors. Manufacturers’ and brands’ perceived values of RT were observed to be influenced by different factors on the basis of the recycling system and cultural values, while designer attitudes towards sustainability were observed to be influenced by external factors. This review contributes to the creation of three main implications in terms of environmental impact and awareness, including actions and concrete proposals for RT and CF.