2005 Volume 91 Issue 1 Pages 192-198
Recycling of waste plastics from household appliances and automobile shredder residue (ASR) is a major concern in Japan along with the enforcement of recycling law. Chemical recycling technology for waste plastics (including flame retardance plastics) has been developed by Japanese industries. In this work, life cycle inventory analysis and project finance method were applied to analyze CO2 emissions and economic feasibility of this technology and compared with those of conventional technologies. It was found that chemicals (Br) recovery in conjunction with energy recovery by this recycling technology could lead to significant reduction of CO2 emissions compared with those from conventional incineration. It was found that economic feasibility of this technology is strongly dependent on disposal cost of waste plastics and cost of electricity.