Differentiating low-carbon waste management strategies for bio-based and biodegradable plastics under various energy decarbonization scenarios
Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
| Veröffentlicht in: | Waste management (New York, N.Y.). - 1999. - 193(2024) vom: 17. Dez., Seite 328-338 |
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| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Weitere Verfasser: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2024
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| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Waste management (New York, N.Y.) |
| Schlagworte: | Journal Article Bio-based plastics Biodegradable plastics Carbon footprint Carbon sequestration Energy decarbonization Waste management |
| Zusammenfassung: | Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Bio-based and biodegradable (bio-)plastics are heralded as a key solution to mitigate plastic pollution and reduce CO2 emissions. Yet, their end-of-life treatments embodies complex energy and material interactions, potentially leading to emissions through incineration or recycling. This study investigates the cradle-to-grave, emphasizing the waste management stage, carbon footprint for several types of bio-plastics, leveraging both GWP100a and CO2 uptake methods to explore the carbon reduction benefits of recycling over disposal. Our findings indicate that in scenarios characterized by carbon-intensive electricity, using polylactic acid (PLA) as an example, incineration with energy recovery (-1.6316 kg CO2-eq/kg, PLA) yields a more favorable carbon footprint compared to chemical recycling (-1.5317 kg CO2-eq/kg, PLA). In contrast, in environments with a high proportion of renewable energy, chemical recycling is a superior method, and compared to incineration (-1.4087 kg CO2-eq/kg, PLA), the carbon footprint of chemical recycling (-2.0406 kg CO2-eq/kg, PLA) are significantly reduced. While mechanical recycling presents considerable environmental benefits, its applicability is constrained by the waste quality, especially in the case of biodegradable plastics like PLA. In addition, the degradation of biodegradable plastics such as PLA was modeled during compost and anaerobic digestion processes. This enables us to quantify the specific biogenic carbon emissions released during these processing steps, revealing the direct emissions with dynamic degradation. This study highlights the importance of tailoring bio-plastic waste management strategies to support global energy decarbonization while understanding their life-cycle carbon metabolism to effectively tackle plastic pollution and climate change |
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| Beschreibung: | Date Revised 18.12.2024 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status Publisher |
| ISSN: | 1879-2456 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.12.001 |