Systems thinking, ecodesign, virgin plastics,.. Such notions about packaging are constantly thrown at you. It becomes almost impossible to see the forest for the trees. Enough is enough. Time to clarify! That's why we spoke with Karine Van Doorsselaer, lecturer in ecodesign at the University of Antwerp and author of several books such as Climate-Conscious Consumption and Ecodesign: A Lifecycle Approach.

You once gave a talk at the University of Flanders in which you stated 'no packaging is the best packaging'. Can you tell us more about that?

There is a lot of discussion in the choice of packaging. To make it simple, I make a kind of roadmap. And indeed, the statement is 'no packaging is the best packaging'. The idea is that we look at the packaging system. I'll give an example - I'm often asked for a packaging of shampoo. Which packaging is the best? My answer is always think about the product itself, think about the function. We want to refresh ourselves, we want to wash our hair and then there are solutions where you are going to use solid shampoo blocks. So that is what is meant by we look at the packaging system in order to prevent packaging. Prevent packaging by changing the product.

"Which packaging is the best? My answer is always – think about the product itself, think about the function."

In short, system change. We totally agree with that. Suppose we do have to use packaging, what does that look like?

The essence of packaging is, of course, to protect the product. If products are lost, the impact is even greater. Then we are going to use the principles of the circular economy where we are going to follow a certain order. This is in the first instance the reuse of the packaging and in the last instance the recycling of the packaging. We're really going to focus on that hierarchy. There is a misconception that the circular economy is synonymous with the recycling economy, which is anything but. We do have our strategies. First reuse and then recycling.

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And suppose we are recycling, what does such a process look like? And why isn't that the priority when it comes to the circular economy?

The story of the circular economy is about value retention. We have our product life cycle. Starting from raw materials to material and packaging making. We add value at every step. The intention is that the packaging will be discarded in end-of-use in order to retain that value. It goes without saying that if we are going to reuse the packaging, it will be at a higher level than if we are going to recycle it. There are extra process steps involved and you will turn the packaging into granules to make packaging again. So it's really about value retention in the circular economy strategy.

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So if we understand correctly, you do indeed need more additional input in a recycling process to maintain the same value or not. In the event that we do look at packaging, it might also be interesting to know what the climate impact looks like. Where is the most weight?

That question, the environmental impact of packaging, is about life cycle thinking. If you ask me now which step in the life cycle has the biggest impact, it is of course some material bound. When we think of glass. Glass starts from sand and other minerals and is melted in a furnace at 1500 degrees Celsius. Which is already seriously energy-intensive. Glass is also heavy if we compare it to a plastic bottle. So the impact of transport in glass is also quite large. The advantage of glass is that we can recycle it infinitely without losing material properties unlike plastics. When it comes to plastics, we start from petroleum.

Four percent of petroleum is used for plastics, which is minimal. Then we get the polymerization of the plastics. They are light, so they have a low impact on transport, but the recycling story is still difficult. PET bottles are currently recycled very nicely and well. It is the plastic par excellence for chemical recycling. This is the plastic that can best be recycled in a high-quality way. Polyethylene, polypropelene are more difficult to recycle chemically and remelting also causes problems. When remelting, we get degradation of molecules, material properties change and the quality of the recyclate decreases.

So if we return to the question. Which phase has the biggest impact? This is certainly not unambiguous, but it depends on the material. But I would like to add something about paper. Paper has the perception of being ecological. If you ask the consumer – paper, that comes from the trees so it's renewable. But anything but. If we cut down the trees and plant new ones, it will take 40 years before the small planted tree is the same size. A major problem of less CO2 absorption when cutting down the trees. Converting wood into paper requires an enormous amount of water, energy and chemicals. So the process itself is anything but. At the end of the day, the recycling of paper involves the breakdown of the fibers at each stage, reducing material properties.