Collaborative Ecosystems and Sustainability Transitions: Evidence from Stina Inc. and the Tube Recycling Project

Abstract

Many sustainability challenges faced by firms are systemic and cannot be addressed by individual organizations acting alone. Packaging recyclability is one such challenge, as it depends on coordinated product design, downstream infrastructure acceptance, and stakeholder trust across an entire value chain. This study examines how a collaborative ecosystem enables progress toward recyclable plastic squeeze tubes through the action of a neutral intermediary. Drawing on an in depth qualitative case study of the Tube Recycling Project coordinated by Stina Inc., the analysis integrates interview data with project documentation to examine how firms collaborated across competitive boundaries. The findings show that sustainability oriented open innovation functioned as a collective response to a shared problem rather than as a firm level strategy. Boundary spanning learning emerged through iterative testing and translation among producers, recyclers, and standards organizations. Trust was maintained not through full transparency, but through confidentiality and data aggregation managed by the intermediary. The study contributes to research on collaborative ecosystems and sustainability transitions by showing how neutral intermediaries enable collective action while preserving competitive boundaries.