An Insight into the Application of Gradations of Circularity in the Food Packaging Industry: A Systematic Literature Review and a Multiple Case Study

Abstract

Given its unsustainable growth, the food packaging industry (FPI) has become a priority industry in the circular economy. Given the academic significance attributed to the gradations of circularity in maximising resource efficiency in the food packaging industry, this paper aims to identify the current state of the application of those gradations of circularity in the FPI by finding the least and most commonly used circular strategies in the FPI. Moreover, it aims to identify the drivers of and barriers to the implementation of the gradations of circularity and the levers for overcoming such barriers through SLR using multiple case studies, namely five small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the FPI that each represent one of the five least implemented circular strategies. The research identified that the efforts of the FPI toward adopting circular strategies were not aligned with the gradations of circularity. Based on the research findings, a lever–barrier matrix is proposed as a toolkit for SMEs planning a transition toward the circular economy or are in the transition phase.