Company reflexivity for plastics circularity: The transformative potential of reflexive environmental legislation in the EU

Summary

There is no doubt that the plastics economy, encompassing plastics production, consumption and waste management requires a transformation. The EU has adopted a legislative approach to facilitate a circular economy transformation for plastics, entailing a hierarchy of ways to enhance their reduction, reuse and recycling. However, driving plastics circularity is no easy feat and regulated companies play a fundamental role in the transformation.
This research explores how EU legislation drives reflexive learning among regulated companies to facilitate plastics circularity. Going beyond incremental changes, reflexivity is an important distinction for understanding how to scale transformations through legislation. Through an exploratory case study of the single-use plastics directive (SUPD) in France and Germany, a novel reflexive environmental law (REL) framework is introduced, comprising three drivers – autonomy, accountability, and adjustability – alongside 11 REL techniques. The framework is applied to evaluate REL’s evolution in EU legislative processes and the (reflexive) responses of companies to the SUPD. Conclusions highlight the crucial role of REL in scaling sustainability transformations by setting transformative visions, balancing the reflexive drivers, building rigidity and flexibility, and enhancing societal coherence.