Revealing a knowledge landscape on sustainable alternatives for plastic materials in takeaway food packaging

Abstract

Plastics have been among the most commonly used materials for food packaging solutions, especially in the takeaway sector because of their convenient features such as flexibility, low cost of production, their durability and most importantly they keep their edible contents safe and in a good state (British Plastics Federation, 2021). Nevertheless, in the last decade, as the use of plastics in takeaway food packaging has risen, the amount of waste and pollution has created a negative impact on the environment (Takeaway Packaging, 2021). The purpose of this thesis will focus on revealing sustainable alternatives for plastic materials in takeaway food packaging, to generate a knowledge landscape for decision making. The application of Competitive and Technology Intelligence (Rodriguez- Salvador, et.al., 2017) strategically evaluates science and technology to reveal the current global trends as well as the most prolific countries and organizations to obtain opportunities for innovation, while enabling the inclusion of diverse analytical methods to enrich the information analysis process. Thus, the Design Futures’ Design Fiction (Kelleher & Byrne, 2015) approach was incorporated in this process to better understand the situations behind the research foci, creating speculation on how the future of alternatives for plastic materials in takeaway food packaging applications could preferably be and how it might be attainable, facilitating the decision-making process. The information resources for this thesis were scientific publication records from SCOPUS and Web of Science database platforms that ran from Jan. 1st, 2017, to Nov. 5th, 2021. A sub-categorization of sustainable alternatives to plastic materials in takeaway food packaging was made to perform a thorough search: “Paper & Cardboard”, “Metals”, “Natural Fibers” and “Biodegradable Polymers”. These are the current material solutions available on the market. Competitive and Technology Intelligence revealed the current global trends on sustainable alternatives for plastics in takeaway food packaging as well as the most prolific countries and organizations in terms of developing scientific research. China and Malaysia are the top publication countries. Educational Institutions are leading the research on sustainable material alternatives for plastics, The Universiti Putra Malaysia (Malaysia) is the top affiliation with most published articles in this field. Experts interviewed agreed that the sole practice of replacing plastic materials in single-use takeaway food packaging is not enough to tackle the current plastic pollution problem, as a recycling culture needs to be practiced at home, “users who consume food packaging and do not discard it properly are the problem”. The utilization of the Design Fiction scope through the employment of the Affinity Diagram by Design Futures’ Contextual Design Fiction (Holtzblatt K. & Beyer H., 2014), helped to better understand the situations behind the research foci for the 4 sub-categories and to create speculation on how the future of sustainable alternatives for plastic materials in takeaway food packaging applications could preferably be and how it might be attainable. It also helped to imagine undesirable future pathways as a way of avoiding failure in the near future by addressing the information obtained from research through Competitive and Technology Intelligence. Long-term sustainability must assess the elimination of waste products and the integration into the circular economy to comply with regulations set by the European Union, which will represent a pivotal decision-making asset to consider when launching new sustainable alternatives to plastic food packaging solutions on the market. Further assessments on the disposal behaviors within society should be made, as well as takeaway food packaging needs to lengthen the time they are used rather than being disposed. The findings of this thesis help the decision-making process of food industry stakeholders and R&D to support initiatives and applications of alternatives for takeaway food packing. The strategic vision obtained from the Competitive Technology Intelligence-Design Fiction approach can be further explored by researchers as a guide to reveal advances in other areas of study.