Abstract
A case study to assess the environmental impacts to climate change and fossil fuel depletion throughout the life cycle of PET bottles was conducted based on primary data obtained for the production and filling of bio-PET bottles distributed in Japan. Multiple scenarios are assessed, where ethylene made from sugarcane bioethanol produced in brazil and fossil fuel origin ethylene are compared under multiple recycling rates. The results show that in regions such as Japan where a high recycling rate is achieved, a reduction of 10% in GHG emissions and 20% in fossil fuel depletion was observed throughout the life cycle of PET bottles by replacing fossil PET with bio-PET.
