Last week we hosted the annual meeting of the PLASTCYCLE project at NILU. It was an excellent opportunity to discuss our recently published study with industry partners and researchers.
During the meeting, we planned the next steps for a country-wide mapping of the chemical additives on polymers throughout the plastics’ life cycle. This mapping will help the industry bring eco-design into the design process and increase the recyclability of products.
We also discussed the potential impacts of implementing recycling strategies and exploratory scenarios toward reducing plastic pollution. We are looking forward to seeing the outcome of this project and its influence on the international efforts towards the plastic treaty and the efficient management of plastic waste.
Many thanks to all those contributing with their time and knowledge to this project!
We are happy to announce that our paper called “A high-resolution dynamic probabilistic material flow analysis of seven plastic polymers; A case study of Norway” was published in the journal of Environment International.
We provided a framework to establish inventories of polymer types for each industrial sector to implement circular strategies to keep plastics in a closed-loops, cap the production, lower consumption, and prevent waste generation.
The paper investigates the flows of seven plastic polymers through the whole life-cycle from production and manufacturing, through the use phase to the waste treatment. Seven polymer types (high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), expanded polystyrene (EPS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) were considered. We included nine different industrial sectors, namely packaging, construction, agriculture, automotive, electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), boats, other plastic, clothing, and other textiles with up to 13 individual product categories included per industrial sector. A lifetime was associated to each individual product category, meaning how many years the product category is used after purchase before it is being discarded. The model uses historical data for the years 2000 to 2020 and then presents a business-as-usual scenario until 2050.
We estimated that total of 620 kilotonnes (kt) of plastic was put on the Norwegian market in 2020, which corresponds to 114 kg of plastic per capita. Packaging is the largest contributor of plastic put on the market, followed by construction and other plastic. A total of 3400 kt of plastic (630 kg/capita) are currently in use, the large majority in the construction sectors as pipes, linings or coverings. Waste generation was estimated to be 460 kt corresponding to 83 kg/capita. More than half of this waste comes from the packaging sector. Overall, half of the plastic waste is separately collected and has the potential to be recycled, the other half ends up in the mixed waste stream. Of the separately collected waste, only half (23% of total waste generation) is eventually recycled in Norway. Another ~30% (or 16% of the total waste generation) is exported, mainly for recycling abroad.
Using the separately collected waste in 2020, we developed several inter- or intrasectorial reuse scenarios. For example, 40% of plastic packaging put on the market is in the form of LDPE and currently 60% of it is separately collected. If all the separately collected LDPE waste could be reused as a secondary material for new products, it would supply 60% of LDPE packaging demand in 2021. Alternatively, it could also be used to satisfy the complete demand of LDPE in the agricultural sector. The reuse scenarios show that plastic waste management should be designed specifically for each industrial sector and not generalized over all sectors. The systematic classification of product categories based on polymer characterization and industrial sector done in this paper can provide a guidance for authorities to facilitate efficient planning for plastic waste reuse and recycling.
The paper is open source and everyone interested in reading the whole paper can download it below or from the journal website.
Last week, NCMT’s plastic and composite conference (Plast- og komposittkonferansen), the biggest plastic conference in Norway, took place in Sandane. Besides NILU, other research institutes, industry partners, and government agencies mostly from Norway but also from abroad were represented. During one of the first sessions, Golnoush Abbasi gave an overview of the PLASTCYCLE project and present first result of the stock and flow model to the whole plenum. The conference was a great opportunity to present PLASTCYCLE to a wide audience in the plastic sector and to get in contact with other institutes about possible future collaborations. The presentation about PLASTCYCLE can be downloaded below.
The results of the modelling study of seven plastic polymers (LDPE, HDPE, PP, PS, PVC, EPS, and PET) in Norway from 2000 to 2050 will be presented in a 20-min-presentation at the plastic and composite conference (Plast- og komposittkonferansen) in Sandane, Norway on 28th of September 2022 under the topic of circular solutions. The plastic and composite conference is the biggest plastic conference in Norway and will provide great opportunities to present plastcycle and the results that stemmed from the project to a wide range of audience from Norway and abroad. More information and tickets to the conference can be found here.
The 32nd annual SETAC meeting was held in Copenhagen from 15th-19th of May 2022. We presented two posters on Plastcycle results:
Stocks, flows and sinks of plastic polymers within products in Norway from 2000 to 2050 – Assessment of future waste management practices and recycling targets
Will increased recycling of plastic also increase the exposure to additives and hazardous chemicals under the circular economy? An inventory of chemical additives in plastic products in Norway
Both posters received positive feedback from visitors and generated interesting conversations. The posters can be downloaded below.
