LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY FOR PET PACKAGES IN THE INTERGRATION WITH IO TABLE OF VIET NAM

Abstract

Waste recycle have been strongly focusing in Vietnam. However secondary environmental effects of the recycling activities have been debatable. This study produces a life cycle inventory (LCI) data set of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packages in the country with further analysis for biggest PET users such as electronic sectors and/or food processing sectors. Loop recycling allocations are approached to calculate GHGs emission and solid waste in the life cycle of 1 ton of PET packages. Input-output (IO) tables are integrated into the study in order to identify indirect environmental burdens from the plastics sector contributed to other sectors in the Vietnamese economy. Based on the 2016 updated IO table, the PET packages occupied 37.43% of GDP of the plastics sector. In term of PET packages demanding, two biggest groups were food processing sectors and electronic sectors, accounted for 5.87% and 10.75% of total PET packages used in 2016, respectively. In term of indirect environmental burdens, these two groups were also the biggest GHGs and waste generators. Among three materials options, GHGs emission from option 1 (100% PETv) was biggest and waste from option 3 (100% PETr) was biggest. Beside the LCI results, this study aims to contribute to the existing literature on GHGs as well as PET waste balances by considering the remaining effects in PET production, distribution and recycling in Vietnam.