2006 Volume 2 Issue 4 Pages 363-369
Nowadays, since plastics are used throughout our societies, the issues surrounding plastic wastes have become a typical and symbolic part of the discussion on waste treatment and recycling. Recycling of plastic wastes is classified into four methods such as reuse, material recycling, chemical recycling and thermal recycling (thermal recovery). The LCA is applied to the estimate of these recycling methods for the reproduction of PET resin. In comparison with the production of PET resin by chemical recycling and thermal recycling, the material recycling can reduce the environmental loading such as energy consumption and pollution. However, the quality of recycled PET and impurity in plastic wastes cannot be estimated by LCA. In comparison with the production of virgin PET resin from crude oil, the monomer recycling process can reduce the environmental loading such as energy consumption and pollution so that it seems to be usable as a practical method for the recycling of PET from bottle to bottle. The importance of appropriately combining sorted waste collections and recycling technologies is pointed out.
