Plastics are Ubiquitous in Our Environment

At IVL Swedish Environmental Institute, we address the entire lifecycle of plastics—from production and design to use, reuse, and recycling. Our work is dedicated to minimizing the environmental impact of plastics and promoting their sustainable use.

IVL Swedish Environmental Institute has strong expertise in plastics and can provide support and advice on using plastics sustainably.

Our data collection and analysis process is comprehensive, providing well-founded decision support through surveys, statistics, and a thorough analysis of plastics flows—from production and usage to waste, treatment, and dispersion of microplastics.

We help local governments and companies risk-assess substances in products and waste, which is particularly important in reuse and recycling. We also conduct environmental assessments at the product and system levels.

We conduct assignments and research projects to identify and analyze obstacles and propose and study policy measures for government agencies and businesses that promote the sustainable use of plastics.

Ongoing research in plastics

Services offered by IVL in the field of plastics

Increased recycling of plastic in industry and healthcare

The use of plastic today is far from circular. In the best case, the plastic is recycled once before being sent to incineration. Work on recycling plastics is aimed at developing processes ensuring that the plastic can be collected and reused in new high-value products. IVL conducts several projects in the field of plastics recycling, including in industry and healthcare.
Read more about the co-financed project