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Finally, and most recently in South Africa, DuPont has embarked on a unique project4 with different partners to develop new uses for mixed flexible packaging, while educating schoolchildren on food waste prevention, recycling and sustainability at the same time.At the heart of the Virtuous Circle project were innovative multilayer food packaging pouches which preserve both food and water over long periods. The pouches first provided nutritious morning meals to schoolchildren. They were then collected to be recycled into raw materials for the production of school desks so the children could see the circular economy in action with their own eyes.The R&D arm of the project has also uncovered other uses for the recycled packaging in products of value to society such as construction planks. In all these examples, the key factor was the use of innovative additives, known as compatibilisers. Up until recently it has proved difficult to recreate a raw material of significant value using mixed flexible plastic waste, because the different plastics would not bind together properly. Compatibilisers allow recyclers to mix together numerous layers of multimaterial packaging with other plastics and create a homogenous recyclate resin of a much higher quality than had previously been possible. “The end result may not be ‘closing-the-loop’ but it is ‘closing-a-loop’”For example, whereas before it would not have been feasible to create housing materials of sufficient quality, this new secondary raw material can be mixed with sawdust (another recycled material) to produce wood-plastic composite planks that comfortably meet strength requirements of building standards for small houses in South Africa, and help address the urgent need for this type of housing in the country. What is more, the planks can then be recycled into the same product several times without losing their properties.The end result may not be ‘closing-the-loop’ in a strictly circular sense but it is ‘closing-a-loop’. Instead, we could look at it as ‘noncycling’ as it contributes innovative and useful applications for a secondary material and, as such, has a legitimate place within a circular economy. Nature reuses materials, not always in the way they were originally used, but in the most resource-efficient way. We should strive to do the same.THE CHALLENGE AHEADHowever, whether or not materials can now be technically recycled counts for little, if other barriers remain in place.For example, unless the necessary systems for collection and separating of different waste streams are in place, the reality is that landfill will remain the default option. The onus is on governments and local authorities, with the support of the private sector to make this a reality and draw on best practice in different parts of the world.Left: Dual compartment food pouches can now be turned into highly productive resourceReferences1 “The New Plastics Economy. Rethinking the future of plastics”. Project Mainstream analysis. Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 20162 How Packaging Contributes to Food Waste Prevention. Denkstatt. (2017)3 https://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/cascading-materials-extending-the-life-of-our-natural-resources4 www.thevirtuouscircle.co.za