The primary driver in any recycling "effort" is profitability. Whether directly profitable (metal recycling) or cost savings associated with subsidized recycling (curbside) the bottom line is key. The most effective way to positively impact the bottom line is to engage manufacturers to design for recycling. By effectively addressing the entire life cycle of materials the cost effectiveness of recycling increases. Making materials easier to sort and recycle combined with creating demand for those same products closes and tightens the life cycle loop and will dramatically increase the effectiveness of recycling efforts.

Hi Ferdi,

I guess it is already mentioned before, but when talking about recycling you need to split the problem in (at least) 2 partitions.
1) Consumer and awareness
2) Technology and capacities

An easy way to increase packaging recycling is to educate the consumer. There won't be (such a big) problem with plastic packaging in the oceans if everybody would just throw their packaging in the waste bins. So if you are willingly to spend lots of money on the education and follow up with consumers on how to recycle, you might end up with a bigger available stock for the recycling.

For technology there are some quick wins (beside the obvious investment in recycling infrastructure). Producing non-colored plastic packaging will have higher (upcycling) recyclability than black/blue/... colored packaging. Also use of monomaterials will facilitate recycling. Only if, like Michael mentioned already, those monomaterials and packaging sizes are the onces that are actually being recycled.

The key drivers for significantly increasing recycling will be to eliminate or substantially reduce the current friction associated with it today. If consumers don't have to think too much about sorting before they place things in their trash, that will make a huge difference. In order to accomplish this, it will require more recycling facilities that accept more recyclable materials, along with easier/simpler/more convenient waste sorting. It will also require materials that are truly recyclable and biodegradable and not just lip service (meaning, technically recyclable but not likely to actually be recycled).

Depends in which country you want to achieve this result. May also depend on the material fraction you consider (aluminium cans, small plastic packaging, etc.). I don't think there's a solution that can apply worldwide.

Developed countries such as Japan or some European countries already achieve quite high recycling rates, so that doubling might be difficult. France is currently considering re-introducing a deposit scheme for beverage packaging to increase the recycling of this plastic category. Might increase the recycling rate, but need to consider the whole impact on the environment including transportation, washing, etc.

On the other hand, developping countries have such progression margins that a 2x could be achieved by constructing recycling facilities, introducing sorting at source, etc. In this case, a whole system needs to be implemented, only one measure won't be sufficient.