Environmental life cycle cost assessment: Recycling of hard plastic waste collected at Danish recycling centres

Abstract

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Characterisation of source-separated, rigid plastic waste and evaluation of recycling initiatives: Effects of product design and source-separation system

“…The scenarios focused on potential changes in product design and source-separation system configuration, rather than changes in the technical aspects of sorting and reprocessing. However, as the technical performance of the plastic sorting has been shown to significantly influence the quantity of recycled plastic (Eriksen et al, 2018a;Faraca et al, 2019), all scenarios were modelled with an average as well as state-of-the-art sorting process. Where the average sorting process reflected average current conditions, the state-of-the-art sorting process represented a potential future situation.…”

“…All sorting efficiencies are provided in SM, Table A9, and the assumptions described in detail in SM, Appendix A.2.2. The reprocessing efficiencies were assumed equal for all scenarios and based on Faraca et al (2019). Due to the removal of unwanted polymers in the waste stream for recycling during reprocessing (e.g.…”

Extending Multilevel Statistical Entropy Analysis towards Plastic Recyclability Prediction

“…Sorting and pretreating polymers, employing techniques such as washing, shredding, grinding, sink-float and near-infrared separations, reduces the statistical entropy of a collection of plastic waste objects, such as the components and subcomponents (bottles, labels and caps) of the exemplary collection bags. Altogether, with a uniform allocation, such sorting is responsible for about 0.36 MJ energy consumption per kg of plastic [22]. In order to get to recycled pellets via mechanical recycling, an additional 0.32 MJ/kg energy is required [46], leading to a total energy requirement of 0.68 MJ/kg.…”

“…Despite the large efforts dedicated to making the transition towards a more circular economy, an important challenge remains in assessing the recyclability of plastics (e.g., [22]). A reduced level of recyclability of plastics can result (i) from the difficulty to separate different plastic types [23], (ii) from the heterogeneity and mixing of collected plastic fractions, (iii) from degradation processes during the recycling process that impact crucial mechanical properties of recycled plastics [24,25], (iv) from the efforts related to the recycling processes (e.g., [26])) and (v) from the presence of adverse effects; e.g., contaminations and the accumulation of substances in the recyclate that may pose a health risk [27].…”

Circular Economy and Economic Development in the European Union: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

“…This approach improves the efficiency of the resources used and promotes sustainable consumption models [48]. One of the greatest concerns related with product life cycles is related to plastic, due to the complexities associated with its composition [49], namely for the European Union [50]. A great part of plastic used is for packaging [51] and agro-food processes [52].…”