Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to be reduced to limit global warming. Plastic production requires carbon raw materials and energy that are associated today with predominantly fossil raw materials and fossil GHG emissions. Worldwide, the plastic demand is increasing annually by 4%. Recycling technologies can help save or reduce GHG emissions, but they require comparative assessment. Thus, we assess mechanical recycling, chemical recycling by means of pyrolysis and a consecutive, complementary combination of both concerning Global Warming Potential (GWP) [CO2e], Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) [MJ/kg], carbon efficiency [%], and product costs [€] in a process‐oriented approach and within defined system boundaries. The developed techno‐economic and environmental assessment approach is demonstrated in a case study on recycling of separately collected mixed lightweight packaging (LWP) waste in Germany. In the recycling paths, the bulk materials polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS) are assessed. The combined mechanical and chemical recycling (pyrolysis) of LWP waste shows considerable saving potentials in GWP (0.48 kg CO2e/kg input), CED (13.32 MJ/kg input), and cost (0.14 €/kg input) and a 16% higher carbon efficiency compared to the baseline scenario with state‐of‐the‐art mechanical recycling in Germany. This leads to a combined recycling potential between 2.5 and 2.8 million metric tons/year that could keep between 0.8 and 2 million metric tons/year additionally in the (circular) economy instead of incinerating them. This would be sufficient to reach both EU and German recycling rate targets (EC 2018). This article met the requirements for a gold‐silver JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

In times of fast-growing stakeholder interest in sustainability, the ecological and social perspective of industrial companies and its products is gaining increasing importance. In particular, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the automotive industry has come to the forefront of public and governmental attention. The transport sector accounts for 27% of all European GHG emissions and constitutes the largest emitter of CO 2 e (CO 2 equivalents) among all energy demanding technologies. Due to increasingly efficient combustion engines and technology innovation towards e-mobility, the emissions from car manufacturing gain in importance. So far little focus has been laid upon the emissions created throughout the production process in automotive supply chains from a purchasing perspective. The purchasing of raw material from environmentally efficient suppliers can constitute a possibility to significantly reduce CO 2 e emissions in automotive supply chains and thus contribute to the two degrees global warming goal. Supplier selection decisions, which cover approximately 75% of the value adding process of a car, are today mainly cost and quality-driven. In order to integrate CO 2 e as decision criterion for supplier selections, site-specific and comparable data on CO 2 e emissions from the upstream supply chain is necessary, but currently lacking. To estimate CO 2 e emissions of steel suppliers' production sites, a model has been developed to estimate manufacturing processes on a site-specific level without the necessity of confidential primary data. The model is applied on 22 integrated steel mills in EU-15. The results, which can be transferred and used for various products and industries, e.g. the construction industry, demonstrate the partially large disparities of manufacturing efficiency regarding CO 2 e emissions among steel manufacturers due to different levels of process integration and internal process know-how. A range between 1879 and 2990 (kg CO 2 e/t crude steel) has been revealed. Finally, the estimated data on CO 2 e performance of suppliers is applied in a case study of supplier selection of a German automobile manufacturer in order to simulate environmental as well as economic effects. A. Schiessl et al.

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Material flows in the construction and demolition (C&D) sector remain high in many countries. But, their changes or reductions are essential for successful circular economies. Existing material flow analyses do not cover regional characteristics, stakeholders and impacts of policy measures and interactions.We contribute a new, unprecedented way of integrating regional building and infrastructure material stock and flow modelling with stakeholders, policy measures, their impacts and mutual interactions.Stakeholders are considered with their objectives, influences, interactions, willingness to act, to cooperate or contribute to resource conservation. 31 policy measures are crystallized from literature and evaluated in two surveys regarding their expected impact, their bundling and temporal effects.The integrated bottom-up simulation model was tested for the federal state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany).The results show that until 2030 net stock piling can be expected and secondary raw materials from building stock will be sufficient to supply future recycling concrete production until 2030. Most License: CC-BY-ND-NC 2.0 DE effective policy measures are additional cost/taxes on primary resources, increased disposal fees and curriculae adaption. Bundling these leads to a combined RESPOT of 30.8%. The results are useful for political decision makers, educational institutions, disposal site operators as well as primary and secondary raw material extraction industries.

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