Management practices for compostable plastic packaging waste: Impacts, challenges and recommendations

The bioplastic industry is identified in the EU Green Deal as one of the possible avenues to tackle the plastic problem, bioplastic waste collection and management practices are still far from full-development and harmonization. To inform policy makers on the best practices and their feasibility, this study quantifies environmental and economic impacts of compostable plastic packaging (CPP) waste management schemes by means of LCA and LCC. Results show that, with respect to climate change and financial costs, the scheme leading to the highest benefits is collecting CPP with conventional plastic waste followed by mechanical sorting and recycling. The second best option is collecting CPP with bio-waste followed by biological treatment. Collecting CPP with conventional plastics followed by sorting and biological treatment is to be avoided. Ideally, closed loop is therefore preferred, but conditioned by i) having high share of CPP in municipal waste (else sorting is economically unfeasible), ii) good citizen’s behaviour at source-segregation, and iii) an established market for secondary material. Currently, overall benefits are limited by the low amounts, suggesting that the management choice could ultimately be based on rather simple technical and economic feasibility criteria while regulatory and management efforts should be focused on other waste streams with greater implications on environment.

CRISTOBAL GARCIA Jorge;  ALBIZZATI Paola Federica;  GIAVINI Michele;  CARO Dario;  MANFREDI Simone;  TONINI Davide; 

2023-09-19

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC132794

0956-053X (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X23005184?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC132794,   

10.1016/j.wasman.2023.08.010 (online),