Digital Supply Chain Pushes Circular Economy

The world continues to struggle with low plastic recycling rates, with only nine percent of global plastic waste recycled, according to a 2019 study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. And one of the crucial correctives for creating a circular economy must be a digitized supply chain.

A recently published article on GreenBiz by Georgia Sherwin about the digitization of supply chains exposes the problems of the current global supply chain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting current shortcomings with dated supply chain methods.

Here are three keys Sherwin believes will drive the success of a digitized supply chain:

• Digitally enhancing products and materials; this creates the ability to track an item at every stage of the lifecycle. Superior traceability provides more information faster, to create a strategic overlook of supply chains at a level never seen before, which is critical to an efficient circular economy.
• Better data helps leader make better decisions, which can help reduce waste, increase traceability and improve recyclability in the supply chain. The ability to improve plastic sortation rates, for example, can drastically improve recycling.
• Costs are reduced when supply chains are more efficient, error rates are lower and previously wasted materials can be reused.

Discover more about the new age of digitized supply chains by registering for the Xtalks Webinar: Traceability from A to Z: How Product Digitization Spells Success for the Supply Chain.