Life cycle assessment of post-consumer plastics production from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) treatment residues in a Central European plastics recycling plant

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 529; pp. 158 - 167
• Main Authors: Wäger, Patrick A., Hischier, Roland
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-10-2015
• Subjects: Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Electronic Waste - statistics & numerical data; Environmental Pollutants - analysis; Incineration; LCA; Life cycle assessment; Plastics; Post-consumer plastics; Recycling; Recycling - methods; Waste electrical and electronic equipment; Waste Management; WEEE; Life cycle assessment; Post-consumer plastics; LCA; Recycling; Waste electrical and electronic equipment; WEEE
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.05.043

Plastics play an increasingly important role in reaching the recovery and recycling rates defined in the European WEEE Directive. In a recent study we have determined the life cycle environmental impacts of post-consumer plastics production from mixed, plastics-rich WEEE treatment residues in the Central European plant of a market-leading plastics recycler, both from the perspective of the customers delivering the residues and the customers buying the obtained post-consumer recycled plastics. The results of our life cycle assessments, which were extensively tested with sensitivity analyses, show that from both perspectives plastics recycling is clearly superior to the alternatives considered in this study (i.e. municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) and virgin plastics production). For the three ReCiPe endpoint damage categories, incineration in an MSWI plant results in an impact exceeding that of the examined plastics recycling facility each by about a factor of 4, and the production of virgin plastics has an impact exceeding that of the post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics production each by a factor of 6–10. On a midpoint indicator level the picture is more differentiated, showing that the environmental impacts of the recycling options are lower by 50% and more for almost all impact factors. While this provides the necessary evidence for the environmental benefits of plastics recycling compared to existing alternatives, it can, however, not be taken as conclusive evidence. To be conclusive, future research will have to address the fate of hazardous substances in the outputs of such recycling systems in more detail.
[Display omitted]
•LCA of plastics production from plastics-rich WEEE treatment residues•Multiple stakeholder perspectives addressed via different research questions•Plastics production from WEEE treatment residues clearly superior to alternatives•Robust results as demonstrated by extensive sensitivity analyses