Citation:

Chea, J., K. Yenkie, J. Stanzione III, AND Gerardo J. Ruiz-Mercado. A generic scenario analysis of end-of-life plastic management: Chemical additives. JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 441:129902, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129902

Impact/Purpose:

90% of spent plastics found in municipal solid waste (MSW) are either landfilled or incinerated. Chemical additives found in plastics are released during these end-of-life (EoL) pathways. Some of these released chemicals negatively affect the environment and human health.   Therefore, drastic improvements to the existing infrastructure for EoL plastic management are needed to limit chemical additive release and exposure resulting from MSW. This manuscript describes the development of a generic analysis of current U.S. EoL processing scenarios to track and estimate environmental releases of plastic additives throughout the plastic EoL stage. Material flow analysis and life cycle inventory (LCI) of the plastic life cycle were performed using available U.S. municipal solid waste data to track plastics and chemical additives movement from the manufacturing to the EoL stages. EoL plastic pathways include 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:

Plastic growing demand and the increment in global plastics production have raised the number of spent plastics, out of which over 90% are either landfilled or incinerated. Both methods for handling spent plastics are susceptible to releasing toxic substances, damaging air, water, soil, organisms, and public health. Improvements to the existing infrastructure for plastics management are needed to limit chemical additive release and exposure resulting from the end-of-life (EoL) stage. This article analyzes the current plastic waste management infrastructure and identifies chemical additive releases through a material flow analysis. 

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