Closing the Loop on Plastic Recycling: Chemical Additives
Citation:
Chea, J., K. Yenkie, J. Stanzione, AND Gerardo J. Ruiz-Mercado. Closing the Loop on Plastic Recycling: Chemical Additives. 25th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Virtual, Virtual, June 14 - 18, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
An improvement to the existing infrastructure for end-of-life (EoL) plastic management is needed to limit chemical additive release and exposure resulting from municipal plastic waste. This conference presentation and abstract describe the development of current U.S. EoL processing scenarios to track and estimate potential releases of plastic additives throughout the plastic EoL stage. A material flow analysis of the plastic life cycle was performed using available U.S. municipal solid waste data to track plastics and chemical additives movement from the manufacturing phase to the EoL stage, including mechanical recycling, waste-to-energy, and landfilling. The Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), the TRI Program, and the general public can use the findings of this research to create an opportunity to design and promote safer closed-loop plastic recycling infrastructure to strategically handle chemical additives and support implementing sustainable materials management efforts to transform the U.S. plastic economy from linear to circular.
Description:
Global plastic production was estimated to reach 360 million tons in 2018. However, over 90% of the spent plastic waste was either landfilled or incinerated, with both solutions being susceptible to releasing toxic substances and greenhouse gases into the environment. An improvement to the existing infrastructure for waste management is needed to limit chemical additive release and exposure resulting from municipal plastic waste. Chemical additives may migrate out of the original plastic under certain conditions, contaminating its surroundings and causing unwanted hazards consequences. This work aims to develop generic end-of-life (EoL) processing scenarios to track and estimate the potential migration, emission, and releases of plastic additives throughout the plastic EoL stage. A material flow analysis of the plastic life cycle was performed using available U.S. municipal solid waste data to track plastics and chemical additives movement from the manufacturing phase to the EoL stage, including mechanical recycling, waste-to-energy, and landfilling. Our analysis identified the mass flow intensity and subsequent chemical additive releases from post-consumer plastic materials. The potential hazards and risks identified in this research create an opportunity to design a safer closed-loop plastic recycling infrastructure to strategically handle chemical additives and support implementing sustainable materials management efforts to transform the U.S. plastic economy from linear to circular.