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Life Cycle Assessment of Recycling High-Density Polyethylene Plastic Waste

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dc.contributor.authorGandhi, Neetien
dc.contributor.authorFarfaras, Nicholasen
dc.contributor.authorWang, Nien-Hwa Lindaen
dc.contributor.authorChen, Wan-Tingen
dc.contributor.departmentChemical Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-05T11:55:01Zen
dc.date.available2021-08-05T11:55:01Zen
dc.date.issued2021-04-08en
dc.description.abstractIncreasing production and use of various novel plastics products, a low recycling rate, and lack of effective recycling/disposal methods have resulted in an exponential growth in plastic waste accumulation in landfills and in the environment. To better understand the effects of plastic waste, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was done to compare the effects of various production and disposal methods. LCA shows the specific effects of the cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle scenarios for landfill, incineration, and mechanical recycling. The analysis clearly indicates that increasing recycling of plastics can significantly save energy and eliminate harmful emissions of various carcinogens and GHGs into the environment. As recycling increases, the need for virgin-plastic production can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the results of this study may help improve current mechanical recycling processes as well as potential future recycling methods, such as chemical recycling. Concerns about the current recycling/disposal methods for plastics have brought increasing attention to the waste accumulation problem. However, with the current COVID-19 pandemic, plastic accumulation is expected to increase significantly in the near future. A better understanding of the quantitative effects of the various disposal methods can help guide policies and future research toward effective solutions of the plastic waste problem.en
dc.description.notesThe authors would like to thank the University of Massachusetts Lowell for providing start-up funds. N.F. andW.-T.C. would like to thank the financial support by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Advanced Manufacturing Office Award No. DE-EE0007897. The authors would like to thank Clayton Gentilcore (School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University) for reading through this paper and providing useful suggestions.en
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity of Massachusetts Lowell; U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Advanced Manufacturing OfficeUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-EE0007897]en
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2021.015529en
dc.identifier.eissn2164-6341en
dc.identifier.issn2164-6325en
dc.identifier.issue8en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/104580en
dc.identifier.volume9en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectLife Cycle Analysis (LCA)en
dc.subjectmechanical recyclingen
dc.subjectmicroplasticen
dc.subjectchemical recyclingen
dc.subjectplastic policyen
dc.titleLife Cycle Assessment of Recycling High-Density Polyethylene Plastic Wasteen
dc.title.serialJournal of Renewable Materialsen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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