The determinants of the growth of the European bioplastics sector - A fuzzy cognitive maps approach

The extensive use of plastics and the environmental burden associated with their disposal have attracted the attention of scientists, politicians and citizens in Europe. In this frame, the EU has adopted a European Strategy for Plastics aiming, on the one hand, at reducing the use of plastic and, on the other hand, promoting their reuse in the context of a circular economy directly linked with the recently adopted Bioeconomy Strategy. Bioplastics could be an alternative to the conventional plastics, but they still have a limited share in the market. In the present work, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, a soft computing technique for analyzing complex decision-making problems, is applied to identify the interplay between bioplastics and conventional plastics. Experts with diverse backgrounds (technical experts, policy makers, industry executives) were interviewed in order to capture their perceptions and create a cognitive map capturing the strong and the weak points of the system. The effect of political, social and techno-economic factors on the potential growth of the bioplastics sector has also been examined. Simulations have shown that the model developed is mainly sensitive to the techno-economic factors involved.

KONTI Aikaterini;  MAMMA Diomi;  SCARLAT Nicolae;  DAMIGOS Dimitris; 

2022-05-23

MDPI

JRC128479

2071-1050 (online),   

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6035,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128479,   

10.3390/su14106035 (online),