Abstract
Plastic is a versatile material that has contributed to numerous product innovations and convenience in everyday life. However, plastic production is growing at an alarming rate, and so has the generation of plastic waste. Unsound waste management results in plastic leakage to the environment with multiple adverse effects to ecosystems. Incineration of plastic waste produces excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while plastic as a material is consumed and cannot be used again as a resource within a circular economy framework. For this reason, the European Union (EU) takes measures to increase plastic recycling, introducing higher targets for recycling in its revised waste legislation. Sweden follows suit, prioritising actions for improving the management of plastic waste. In this contribution, three scenarios of future plastic waste management are analysed for their sustainability impacts by 2030. The analysis is enabled by a plastic waste management flow model that calculates environmental, economic, and social impacts. The indicators used in the model to describe the impacts in each axis of sustainability are (1) GHG emissions, (2) monetary costs and benefits, and (3) number of jobs created. The results indicate several trade-offs between the different scenarios and between the different sustainability aspects of future plastic waste management, with their strengths and weaknesses duly discussed. Concluding, the most promising and sustainable future scenario for plastic waste management in Sweden includes high targets for recycling—in line with EU targets—and a gradual phase-out of plastic incineration as a waste management option.
Highlights
The prevalence of plastics in modern lifestyles is undisputable
We present the results of the plastic waste flow model and discuss the different future scenarios and their sustainability potential based on the quantified impacts provided by the model
For assessing the potential sustainability impacts of increased plastic recycling under different future waste management configurations in Sweden, we introduce three distinct future scenarios and analyse their particular conditions
Summary
The prevalence of plastics in modern lifestyles is undisputable. Plastic is a versatile material that can be used in a wide range of applications, from simple single-use packaging to high-tech durable industrial applications. In the last 50 years, plastic production has increased twenty-fold, reaching 322 million tonnes in 2015 [2], and plastic production is estimated to double by 2036 and might even quadruple by 2050 [3]. This accelerated rate of production, coupled with a rapidly increasing world population and an even higher rate of consumption, results in significant plastic waste generation. Production of plastics is fossil-based and uses crude oil and Recycling 2018, 3, 33; doi:10.3390/recycling3030033 www.mdpi.com/journal/recycling
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