Reduction of the carbon footprint through polystyrene recycling: Economical evaluation

Gutiérrez, C.; Rodrı́guez, Juan F.; Gracia, Ignacio; Lucas, Antonio de; García, María Teresa

doi:10.1016/j.psep.2015.12.004

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Accordingly, rPET shows lower environmental impacts compared to APET. Principally, PS-based trays might also be also produced from recycled PS [35,36]. This case was not investigated within this study since there is no recycled PS for food applications on the market.…”

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

2019

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In light of the debate on the circular economy, the EU strategy for plastics, and several national regulations, such as the German Packaging Act, polymeric foam materials as well as hybrid packaging (multilayered plastic) are now in focus. To understand the environmental impacts of various tray solutions for meat packaging, a comparative environmental assessment was conducted. As an environmental assessment method, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied following the ISO standards 14040/44. The nine packaging solutions investigated were: PS-based trays (extruded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene with five-layered structure containing ethylene vinyl alcohol), PET-based trays (recycled polyethylene terephthalate, with and without polyethylene layer, and amorphous polyethylene terephthalate), polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA). The scope of the LCA study included the production of the tray and the end-of-life stage. The production of meat, the filling of the tray with meat and the tray sealing were not taken into account. The results show that the PS-based trays, especially the mono material solutions made of extruded polystyrene (XPS), show the lowest environmental impact across all 12 impact categories except for resource depletion. Multilayer products exhibit higher environmental impacts. The LCA also shows that the end-of-life stage has an important influence on the environmental performance of trays. However, the production of the trays dominates the overall results. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis illustrates that, even if higher recycling rates were realised in the future, XPS based solutions would still outperform the rest from an environmental perspective.

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Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

2019

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“…For the year of 2016 United States consumed 1609 thousand metric tons of PS and less than 1% of it was recycled. For the last 15 years the recycling rate of polystyrene has never been above 1.2% and the estimates for the next 5 years is that it remains constant at 0.9% [1,3,4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adding value to polystyrene waste by chemically transforming it into sulfonated polystyrene

2019

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Polystyrene (PS), one of the most used polymers in everyday life, has a low recycling rate due to its inexpensive virgin resin. In order to make polystyrene waste (WPS) recycling advantageous, it is possible to change it chemically, introducing heteroatoms in the polymer chain thus transforming the waste into a material with more added value. In this work, sulfonation reactions of polystyrene waste (disposable cups and expanded polystyrene-EPS) with different degrees of sulfonation were carried out by homogeneous sulfonation using acetylsulfate as a sulfonating agent, originating polystyrene sulfonate (PSS). The characterization of the products was done using Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), solubility tests and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Infrared spectroscopy revealed that the reaction was efficient and all the starting materials tested were successfully sulfonated and transformed into PSS. There was no distinction between the residues tested, revealing that it's possible to carry the reaction without sorting the waste. EPS was chosen as the substrate for further reactions varying the degree of sulfonation. Solubility and ICP-OES tests have shown that, by changing the synthesis conditions, it is possible to achieve different degrees of products sulfonation. As a result of the studied reactions it was found that varying the degree of sufonation it is possible to use polystyrene residues to produce PSS for different applications.

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“…Segundo Lino, Ismail e Cosso (2013), a redução no consumo de energia por meio da reciclagem pode proporcionar grandes benefícios para o país, já que a produção de material virgem está associada a um grande consumo energético. Em termos gerais, a reciclagem pode ser mais benéfica ao meio ambiente do que métodos tradicionais de produção e gerenciamento de resíduos, como pirólise, tratamentos térmicos e produção de polímeros virgens (GUTIÉRREZ et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Avaliação dos impactos ambientais de um processo industrial utilizando como matéria-prima policarbonatos virgem e reciclado

Lacerda¹,

Nunes

Paiva³

et al. 2019

Eng. Sanit. Ambient.

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RESUMO Os impactos ambientais gerados por processos produtivos é um assunto em crescente evidência no mundo organizacional, e a análise comparativa de processos vem sendo utilizada pelas empresas para verificar os impactos ambientais e suas principais fontes de emissões. A análise dos impactos de um processo produtivo, com dois contextos distintos para a produção de hastes de óculos de policarbonato (PC), em uma indústria localizada no interior de São Paulo, foi realizada com a finalidade de comparar os impactos ambientais gerados. Para isso, foram definidos dois cenários: o 1 representa o processo de injeção que utiliza 100% de PC virgem como matéria-prima, enquanto o 2 usa apenas 20% de matéria-prima virgem, sendo o restante proveniente de resíduos de PC reciclados internamente. Dados quantitativos e qualitativos referentes aos cenários foram coletados e utilizados para identificar os impactos ambientais gerados com o auxílio da metodologia de avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV). Com os resultados obtidos e a análise comparativa realizada, foi possível verificar os benefícios ambientais resultantes da reciclagem interna da matéria-prima. A redução dos impactos no cenário 2 em comparação com o 1 foi expressiva, principalmente, devido à diminuição da necessidade da produção de matéria-prima virgem. Em todas as categorias de impactos analisadas, ocorreram reduções - por exemplo, na categoria “mudanças climáticas”, a redução foi superior a 70%.

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Reduction of the carbon footprint through polystyrene recycling: Economical evaluation

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

Adding value to polystyrene waste by chemically transforming it into sulfonated polystyrene

Avaliação dos impactos ambientais de um processo industrial utilizando como matéria-prima policarbonatos virgem e reciclado

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