Beschreibung
Plastic, despite its exponential increase in production and consumption, has followed mostly a linear economy approach of take, make, use, and dispose. In order to reduce the negative impacts of plastic pollution and optimize their resource efficiency, it is critical to recover plastic wastes after use and retain them within the system for a circular economy. Apart from the majority of plastic wastes generated after the use phase as post-consumer waste, there is a significant volume of plastic waste generated during the processing of the plastic products, which is known as pre-consumer or post-industrial plastic waste (depending on the source of the generation of these wastes). To design an effective recycling infrastructure globally, the manufacturers must consider the recovery and recycling of the plastic wastes generated both during the manufacture of their products as well as after the use phase. Furthermore, it is necessary to determine the technical, environmental, and economic impacts of recycling these wastes to have a business case for integrating these processes within the value chain of plastics. Based on a research project that determined the properties of pre-and post-consumer recyclates from industries, this study will highlight the approaches and challenges in evaluating the technical, environmental, and economic impacts of recycling plastic wastes.
