Proposal for a Circular Product Development Model Applied to Packaging

Adopting the circular economy can drive significant cultural and organizational changes, providing important benefits such as cost improvement, innovation, new market opportunities, quality improvement, market acceptance, and legal compliance. This paper proposes a circular product development model for packaging to integrate circular economy principles into the traditional product development process. Firstly, a systematic literature review was made to identify relevant guidelines, strategies, practices, and initiatives related to circular economy and product development and understand how they could be integrated into the stages of the product development process. These circular practices, initiatives, and strategies were incorporated into the Rozenfeld model, creating a Circular Product Development Model proposed in this study (C-PDM). This model was tested through a case study in the packaging industry located in the Curitiba region—Brazil, identifying the opportunity to incorporate 18 circular practices into the product development process. The study concludes by highlighting the potential contribution of this model to the packaging market, particularly in supporting the circular development of products, thus aligning with the broader goals of sustainability and economic efficiency.