Most of the plastic waste within retail is ending up in landfills instead of being reused or recycled. Operating with plastic, a value loss for retailers, society, and the planet is the current standard. The municipality of Vejle aims to move towards an industry in which the value chains of plastic do not end at landfills or incinerators, but in circular loops creating value in themselves, contributing to their goal of 70% CO2 emission reduction by 2030.  

The municipality of Vejle developed, in collaboration with the Danish Design Center, a game to foster positive transformation through tangible value creation based on a short-term, manageable and focused effort. Through the collaboration with the retail chain Rema 1000, the Vejle pilot identified a need for a practical way to explore and understand the business’ value chain. Contributing to the aim of the retailer, to reduce the plastics sent to incineration by 25%. At the test site, Rema 1000 identified and created circular loops for candy boxes and plans to implement further loops for flower bins and other items. This will mean that several hundred tons of plastic every year will be recycled instead of incinerated.  Working together on identifying the actual steps in the chain allowed for more concrete solutions to be found at the test site. Parallel, the work with the Reflow operating system introduced Vejles municipal team to the methodology of “value flows”, which functions as a structured way of classifying different aspects of the value chain in order to digitalize the chain. Working specifically with the plastic material flow, the team realized that no such tools existed in the market, and therefore developed the “Value Chain Mapping Game”.  

The Value Chain Mapping Game solution is a physical and online tool that helps identify and outline of the whole value chain of plastic in retail, using gamification. The user is the retailer, who will understand the whole flow of the product mapped through answering questions such as: Who are your suppliers? Who do you need to get in contact with? What happens to the material when it is used or thrown away? What kind of new loops are possible for the material? The aim is to educate the users about the value chain of plastic and increase the circularity of plastic streams, and thereby facilitate the reduction of plastic use and increase the rate of reusing or recycling.  Based on the research conducted by the municipality participating in the REFLOW process, retailers using the game can identify their necessary actions in order to make their plastic flow more circular. The mapping game is a portfolio extension of Spraengfarlig! , a small consulting company founded in 2006, which mainly works on projects related to innovative technology and sustainability.

Obtaining new and exclusive transparency in the value chain and the transactions with their stakeholders will enable various retailers to identify and create loops for plastic packaging. The Value Chain Mapping Game can be applied to various material streams and different supply chains, contributing to a circular material flow.

REFLOW was an EU Horizon 2020 innovation action project running from 2019 to 2022, with the aim to increase circularity in European cities. Through REFLOW, the 28 project partners developed a range of solutions to make the material flows more circular within the six pilot cities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan, Cluj-Napoca, Paris, and Vejle. The cities' social, environmental, and economic impact was assessed, and a range of solutions enabling the circular transition were developed through active citizen involvement. The project combined the expertise of the project partners spanning municipalities, scientific and research institutions, technology providers, design and grassroot organisations, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.