Life cycle assessment of end-of-life treatments for plastic film waste

Hou, Ping; Xu, Yifan; Taiebat, Morteza; Lastoskie, Christian M.; Miller, Stephen E.; Xu, Ming

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.278

Cited by 100 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…A large fraction of organics in condensable particulate matter emitted from waste incineration for power generation plants is derived from PVC in the waste 36 . The processes of plastic waste treatment impact freshwater ecosystems 37 and human health 38 , and lead to changes in water intake 39 . Therefore, five of 18 midpoint indicators in ReCiPe which attract lots of attention were chosen for analysis, namely global warming (GW) (kg CO 2 eq), fine particulate matter formation (FPMF) (kg PM2.5 eq), freshwater ecotoxicity (FWE) (kg 1,4-DCB eq), human carcinogenic toxicity (HCT) (kg 1,4-DCB eq) and water consumption (WC) (m^3).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

et al. 2021

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Since the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54–3.20 billion euros.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

et al. 2021

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“…From sensitivity analysis it has been reported that increase in the mass fraction of films in waste significantly improves the environmental benefits of recycling. The recycling rate at the material recovery facility, utilization rate, and incinerator waste-to-energy ratio are the key parameters governing the life cycle environmental impacts of plastic film EOL treatments ( Hou et al ., 2018 ).…”

Section: Environmental Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regeneration and Recovery of Plastics

Karmakar

2022

Encyclopedia of Materials: Plastics and Polymers

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“…In addition to landfilling and incineration, a third alternative would be to recycle the plastic waste [6,7]. In this way, it becomes possible to use waste that would be eliminated for the preparation and development of new material, not only avoiding all the negative impacts coming from the other methods but also reducing the consumption of petroleum-based-polymer, consequently, the extraction of petroleum [1,8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protective Low-Density Polyethylene Residues from Prepreg for the Development of New Nanocomposites with Montmorillonite: Recycling and Characterization

Severino

Montanheiro

Ferro³

et al. 2019

Recycling

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A sustainable alternative to the destination of polyethylene (PE) residue from the prepreg package was established. This work intends to develop nanocomposites for packaging containing neat low-density polyethylene (LDPE), a compatibilizer agent (maleic anhydride grafted-LDPE, LDPE-g-MA), recycled LDPE obtained from the protective films of prepreg (rLDPE) and montmorillonite (MMT). The rLDPE, from the prepreg shield, has a primary role during the transport and storage of prepreg, which can be composed of epoxy resin and carbon fiber or glass fiber. However, this rLDPE is withdrawn and discarded, besides, it is estimated that tons of this material are discarded monthly by the company Alltec Materiais Compostos Ltd. (São José dos Campos-SP, Brazil). Due to several factors, including the lack of technology for recycling, the majority of this material is incinerated. In this context, this work presents a technical and ecologically viable alternative for the use of this discarded material. Nanocomposites of LDPE/rLDPE blends and montmorillonite (MMT) with different contents (0.0, 1.0, and 3.0 wt%) and with the addition of compatibilizer agent (LDPE-g-MA) were prepared by extrusion process. Test specimens were obtained by hot pressing in a hydropneumatic press followed by die-cutting. The nanocomposites produced using rLDPE presented good mechanical, thermal, and morphological properties, being the ideal concentration of 1 wt% MMT. Thus, the results obtained confirmed the viability of recycling LDPE from the prepreg package which contributes to the reduction of waste and the use of this material in technological applications.

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Life cycle assessment of end-of-life treatments for plastic film waste

Cited by 100 publications

References 18 publications

China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

Regeneration and Recovery of Plastics

Protective Low-Density Polyethylene Residues from Prepreg for the Development of New Nanocomposites with Montmorillonite: Recycling and Characterization

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