Abstract
This paper elaborates an energy and material flow model for conventional lightweight packaging sorting and recycling in Germany based on literature analysis and information provided by industry experts. The model is used to determine specific energy and material demands of particular lightweight packaging fractions and their respective climate impacts. Fluorescent-based identification techniques, tracer-based-sorting in particular, are assessed as an option to increase material circularity due to improved sorting and recycling accuracy. In comparison to primary production of lightweight packaging, conventional sorting and recycling saves 565 kg CO2-eq./Mg of input sorting. A total of four implementation scenarios are considered, reflecting the percentage of mixed plastics and residuals that can be mechanically processed through improved sorting (10%, 50%, 90% and 100%). Using tracer-based-sorting, these savings increase from 578 up to 1227 kg CO2-eq/Mg depending on implementation scenario. This paper concludes that tracer-based-sorting can contribute to an environmentally benign circular economy by yielding high-quality regranulates, which are capable of substituting more carbon-intensive primary production of lightweight packaging.
Highlights
The packaging industry is the most important single polymer consuming industrial sector in Europe (PlasticsEurope AISBL; EPRO 2018)
The transformation to a circular economy requires new business models and newly emerging technologies and needs to understand associated environmental impacts, which is a challenging task for LCA (Hetherington et al 2014; Arvidsson et al 2018)
This paper offers a pragmatic contribution to the discussion on prospective LCA of emerging technologies by combining data from established recycling and sorting systems with prospective data from pilot TBS plants
Summary
The packaging industry is the most important single polymer consuming industrial sector in Europe (PlasticsEurope AISBL; EPRO 2018). A sustainable circular economy is seen as a solution to reduce both, the production of plastics based on raw materials and the disposal and littering of used plastic products. It has become part of national and international policies and legislation (see, e.g. the German Recycling Law (Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz 2012) and the European Action Plan for the Circular. Such circularity requires efficient material flows and environmental sustainability throughout the whole life cycle (Geueke et al 2018). A mass increase in plastic waste (Destatis 2020) and a further increase in statutory recycling rates all over Europe including Germany (German Packaging Law 2017) are forcing waste management systems to continuously increase recycling activities. Since the beginning of 2019, the German Packaging Act stipulates new recycling quotas for plastic packaging: a quota of 63% must be met by 2022 (Birnstengel et al 2018)
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