Universities across Europe face a growing challenge: how do we equip students, engineers, designers, economists, social scientists with the skills to navigate the environmental, economic, and social complexities of the plastics transition? As plastic production is expected to more than double by 2050, and recycling systems lag far behind, the need for systemic thinking has never been more urgent. The new Rethinking Plastics workbook, developed within the EU-funded CIRCULAR FOAM project, offers a rich, practice-oriented answer to this challenge.
Designed for lecturers and students from diverse disciplines, the workbook provides a structured, accessible, and engaging introduction to sustainability science, circular economy thinking, and qualitative scenario analysis. It is built around three modules that can be used independently or as a complete learning sequence. The material has already been tested in academic teaching, including within the “Future Skills” seminar at Ruhr University Bochum.
1. Understanding Sustainability Challenges in the Plastics Economy
The first module lays a strong conceptual foundation by introducing the environmental and socio-economic dynamics of plastics. It highlights how plastics have become essential to modern life, used in packaging, appliances, transport, and construction, while simultaneously placing severe environmental pressures on the environment. Students learn that only 5–20% of plastics are recycled worldwide, and that they are often downgraded into lower-value materials. Most plastics are still produced from fossil sources and end up incinerated or landfilled, significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Visuals and discussion prompts encourage students to explore systemic questions, such as: Can the plastics sector become more sustainable? What technological, behavioural, political, and infrastructural changes are needed? These questions open up space for interdisciplinary classroom debate among perspectives from engineering, policy, business, and environmental science.
2. Circular Economy and R-Strategies: Moving Beyond Recycling
The second module introduces the circular economy (CE) and the full spectrum of R-strategies (from Refuse to Recover) based on the widely used framework developed by Potting and colleagues. The workbook presents these strategies in a clear hierarchy, showing how practices such as reuse, repair, refurbishment, or remanufacturing can offer far greater environmental benefits than recycling alone.
For university teachers, this module is especially powerful. It contains ready-to-use prompts, case examples, and group exercises that help students rethink linear business models and evaluate which R-strategy fits best for specific sustainability challenges. The Cradle-to-Cradle diagram provides a visual entry point for discussions of biological versus technical cycles and the design implications for each.
Teachers can easily integrate these exercises into seminars, project weeks, or design studios. Students are encouraged to move from generic notions of “recycling” to a nuanced understanding of how product lifetimes, material choices, end-of-life infrastructure, and user behaviour all shape circularity outcomes.
3. Scenario Analysis: Teaching Students to Think in Futures
The third module offers a practical introduction to qualitative scenario analysis—an essential method for navigating uncertainty in sustainability transitions. It guides learners through the whole scenario development process, supported by clear visuals such as the scenario cone of plausibility, the Wilson matrix, and the five phases of the scenario process.
This module gives lecturers a complete teaching toolkit:
- explanations of scenario logic,
- classroom-ready exercises,
- templates for identifying key factors,
- examples of projections,
- and tools such as morphological fields for generating scenarios.
Because scenario analysis is inherently participatory, it fits naturally into interdisciplinary courses or group-based learning formats. Students learn to handle uncertainty, integrate multiple perspectives, and generate strategic recommendations. These skills are essential for future sustainability professionals.
Why This Workbook Matters for University Teachers
The strength of the Rethinking Plastics workbook lies in its constructive combination of theory and practice. It does not present sustainability and circularity as abstract ideas but connects them to concrete activities, sector-specific challenges, and applied methods. It pushes students beyond incremental improvements toward thinking about systemic change.
For teachers aiming to modernize curricula, introduce interdisciplinary learning, or build sustainability competencies, this workbook is an immediately usable resource. Whether you teach engineering, environmental studies, logistics, chemistry, design, or public policy, the modules provide adaptable material that enriches courses and helps empower students to become future changemakers.
Source: Circular Foam – Rethinking Plastics – Workbook on Sustainability Challenges, Circular Solutions, and Scenario Analysis
Also read: Closing the Loop: Circular Foam Shows the Future of PU Recycling