Sustainable packaging : financial analysis of increasing RPET content

Mestrado Bolonha em Management ; The production of fossil-based plastics can be credited with the usage of around 4% to 8% of oil and gas globally, with current trends pointing to upwards of 20% in 2050, making this material a threat to the worsening of greenhouse emissions and global warming (Hopewell et al., 2009; Rhodes, 2018). Within this problematic, the pollution created by single-use bottles has received a lot of regulatory oversight, with an increasing number of methods for the reduction of said waste having been developed in response to said regulations. One of the most popularly used materials within this market is Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), with Recycled Polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) standing out as the most economically and environmentally sustainable alternative. With the introduction of regulations for the quantity of recycled content in PET bottles, several markets have been affected, though little regard has been given to the consequences of setting benchmarks that may be “overly prescriptive and market intrusive” (Ilie & Jurconi, 2019), with the market for rPET currently suffering from a supply-demand imbalance that has led to claims of economically unsustainable regulations. The goal of this research was to assess the degree to which the rPET level in the current legislation, and superior levels of rPET content, affects the financial viability of products that use said materials. This being done through a financial viability analysis of introducing increasing amounts of this material in an existing, established olive-oil product. It was found that for 30%, 50%, and 75% rPET content, financial viability could be reached for this specific unit in a static setting, this being concluded through an analysis of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of consumers, measured by form of a questionnaire, and translated into the price sensitivity of demand of the three aforementioned product variants. ; A produção de plásticos com origem fóssil é responsável pela utilização de 4% a 8% do gás e ...