Modern Approaches in Food Packaging Waste Management

Due to the current state of eco-pollution produced by plastic packaging wastes that are usually found contaminating soils and fresh water, it is critical to develop a long-term solution, particularly for the food industry. As previously said, packaging wastes from foods makes about two-thirds of total volume of the packaging wastes, which is driven by a variety of factors such as rising economies, new products, public perception changes, consumerism, increases in income, population growth, and so on. Therefore, methods of treating and processing of food packaging wastes must be relooked to understand the environmental, economic, and social ramifications involved with food packaging waste management. Source reduction, recycling, composting, burning, and landfilling are all part of the traditional integrated waste management method. Although just by altering the process design of these conventional food packaging waste treatment methods, yet various modern green waste management approaches are now being developed. Therefore, this chapter presents system of waste generation in the sector of food and then provides an insight on the conventional as well as modern food packaging waste management approaches, finally giving a detailed comparison thereof. Additionally, the goal of this chapter would be to widen understanding of packaging waste treatment techniques in the food sector.