The Team

Systemic solutions for
packaging prevention

Dr. Elisabeth Süßbauer

Scientific Leader

Center for Technology and Society,
Technical University of Berlin

As leader of the junior research group I am responsible for the interdisciplinary integration of knowledge: How can our findings be integrated into systemic solution proposals? In my research I focus on cultural aspects of the consumption of packaging. I am interested in how and why dietary patterns changed so much that the consumption of packaging has crept into our daily lives.

Since 2015 I work at the Center for Technology and Society in the department of Land Use and Consumption Patterns. My research interests include sustainable practices of consumption, organisational change, innovation processes of sustainability and employee participation. Prior I worked at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy in various projects and wrote my dissertation at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research about discourses of climate change in urban planning.

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In my function as co-lead of our project, I am especially responsible for the realization and implementation of our findings. I am interested in the economy of waste prevention: Why is not using packaging so complicated and costly that we would rather pay steadily increasing amounts of money to dispose of our waste afterwards?

As head of the Division of Circular Economy at Wuppertal Institute I am interested specifically in processes of transformation: Everyone aims at becoming a circular economy – but how do we get there? What form of research, what knowledge do we still lack to replace our linear system with a circular economy? To this end, I work in various projects on recycling approaches, re-use or digitization as a driver of the circular economy.

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Dr. Henning Wilts

Scientific Co-Leader

Wuppertal Institute, Division of Circular Economy

E-Mail: henning.wilts@wupperinst.org

Sarah Julie Otto, M.Sc.

Research Associate

Institute of Environmental Technology, Technical University of Berlin

E-Mail: s.otto@tu-berlin.de

As a doctoral student in the project, I examine the emergence of packaging along the value chain of selected products. The goal is to identify alternative packaging, business models or product-service systems (PSS) that enable savings in packaging waste along the entire supply chain. It also identifies indicators that allow assessment of the recyclability of packaging alternatives (e.g., reusability, recyclability).

I completed my studies of “Environmental Technology” at the Technische Universität Berlin. During my studies, I was employed by Ökopol GmbH, the Öko-Institut and the Department of Circular Economy and Recycling Technology and worked in research projects concerning waste and environmental topics. Currently, I am a research associate at the Department of Circular Economy and Recycling Technology of the Technische Universität Berlin. In keeping with the motto “waste is my hobby”, I also work in the working group for waste and resource policy of the BUND Berlin and the Foodsharing Initiative.

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As a doctoral student in the project, I concentrate on the psychological mechanisms that underlie and influence individual consumer behavior. I examine which personal and external factors are relevant in order to make the everyday consumption of food and drugstore products packaging-free, and which alternative forms and routines of consumption can be developed and established. As a research associate, I work at the Center for Technology and Society of the Technische Universität Berlin.

Before the start of PuR I worked in different associations (SV-Bildungswerk, Berlin, kiekare, Guadalajara) on the topics of consumption reduction and climate protection.

I enjoy spending my free time in the vegetable garden, participating in the Foodsharing Initiative and, as a member of Wandelwerk, giving workshops in which we develop and impart psychological knowledge for active environmental protection.

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Klara Wenzel, M.Sc.

Research Associate

Center for Technology and Society, Technical University Berlin

E-Mail: wenzel@ztg.tu-berlin.de

Jennifer Schinkel, M.A.

Research Associate

Wuppertal Institute, Division of Circular Economy

E-Mail: jennifer.schinkel@wupperinst.org

As a doctoral student in the junior research group, I investigate political instruments to avoid packaging waste. My focus is on instruments that can be used individually or in combination with other instruments to help prevent waste and at the same time reduce resource consumption.

I am a research associate at the Division of Circular Economy at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. With my work in the junior research group, I am following up on my previous research on waste prevention policy. In it, I have dealt with the reduction of food waste and the evaluation and development of indicators for waste prevention. Previously, I completed a “Volunteer Ecological Year” and then studied Political Science, Scandinavian Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bonn.

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As a doctoral student in the project, I examine various packaging strategies with regard to their social, economical and ecological sustainability. By using life-cycle-related balancing of the individual sustainability dimensions, I can identify hotspots of negative influences and compare different packaging strategies. For the ecological dimension, I used for example the well-known Life Cycle Assessment Tool.

After completing my studies of Environmental Technology at the TU Berlin with a Master of Science (M.Sc.), I worked for a non-profit organization in environmental management in South Africa as part of the developmental voluntary service “Weltwärts”. Subsequently, I worked in the field of national and international sustainability reporting at the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). I work as a research associate at the chair of Sustainable Engineering at the Technische Universität Berlin.

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Justus Caspers, M.Sc.

Research Associate

Institute of Environmental Technology, Technical University of Berlin

E-Mail: j.caspers@tu-berlin.de

Rabea-Lorina Dehning, M.A.

Research Assistant

Center for Technology and Society

E-Mail: dehning@ztg.tu-berlin.de

In my function as research assistant, I support the junior research group PuR as a whole, as well as the researchers individually with organization and research. I am responsible for public relations and event planning. As a cultural scholar, I am particularly interested in the relationship between humans and technology in everyday life and the practices that connect them. In practical terms, I am also interested in how solutions for waste prevention can be integrated into everyday life.

Since 2016, I work at the Center for Technology and Society, first as a student assistant, now as a research assistant.

As a student assistant in the project PuR I support the research focus on consumption patterns. Everyday practices and their embedding in larger social processes and dynamics are of particular interest to me as a social scientist. The opportunity to apply the socio-scientific methodology for solutions to greater resource efficiency, I see as a great opportunity for a more sustainable life.

I study Sociology and Political Science at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin and work since June 2019 at the Center for Technology and Society. My studies focus on qualitative social research, sociological theory and discourse analysis.