MAPPING THE GLOBAL RESEARCH LANDSCAPE ON REUSABLE PLASTIC PACKAGING: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

The shift to circular economy models demands consolidated evidence on reusable plastic packaging (RPP), especially reusable plastic crates (RPCs). The purpose of this paper is to map and review scientific literature that comprises reusable plastic packaging with emphasis on reusable plastic crates (RPCs) to show what has been studied, how themes connect, and where the gaps are. A bibliometric review was conducted on the Scopus database. An advanced search was performed using the title, abstract and keywords. Following de-duplication and screening for topical relevance, language (English) and document type (articles and reviews), 205 documents from 2000 to 2025 were retained. Maps were generated in VOSviewer using association-strength normalization and full counting, and spelling variants were harmonized via a thesaurus. With a keyword threshold ≥5 (N=79), five clusters were identified relating to supply-chain sustainability, consumer behaviour, waste/recycling, life-cycle assessment (LCA), and policy. Density and Average Publication Year (APY) overlay analyses indicated core emphases on sustainability and LCA, and recent growth was observed in consumer behaviour, e-commerce, and decision-making after 2018. Co-authorship networks were found to be fragmented. A map and a research agenda are provided, focusing on behaviour–operations integration, decision support, digital governance and regions that have been understudied. To date, no field-level, supply-chain-focused bibliometric map of reusable plastic crates integrating keyword co-occurrence, APY overlays, and co-authorship networks has been available; this gap is addressed by this study