Plastics are a challenge
for the circular economy due to their
overall low recycling rate and high dependency on primary resources.
This study analyzes the EU demand for poly(ethylene terephthalate)
(PET) packaging from 2020 to 2030 and quantifies the potential environmental
and societal savings by changing the waste management and consumption
patterns compared with business-as-usual practices. The results of
the life-cycle assessment and life-cycle costing show that a maximum
of 38 Mt of CO2-eq and 34 kt of PM2.5-eq could
be saved with a more efficient waste management system and a robust
secondary material market while also avoiding 8.3 billion EUR2019 in societal costs (cumulative 2020–2030). However,
limiting annual PET consumption growth appears to have a similar profound
effect on improving the efficiency of waste management systems: 35
Mt of CO2-eq, 31 kt of PM2.5-eq, and 25 billion
MEUR2019 societal costs could be saved, simply by keeping
EU consumption of PET constant.
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