Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) Packaging Management Strategies in the EU

Susanna Andreasi Bassi*, Davide Tonini, Hans Saveyn, Thomas Fruergaard Astrup

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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    Abstract

    Plastics are a challenge for the circular economy due to their overall low recycling rate and high dependency on primary resources. This study analyzes the EU demand for poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) packaging from 2020 to 2030 and quantifies the potential environmental and societal savings by changing the waste management and consumption patterns compared with business-as-usual practices. The results of the life-cycle assessment and life-cycle costing show that a maximum of 38 Mt of CO2-eq and 34 kt of PM2.5-eq could be saved with a more efficient waste management system and a robust secondary material market while also avoiding 8.3 billion EUR2019 in societal costs (cumulative 2020-2030). However, limiting annual PET consumption growth appears to have a similar profound effect on improving the efficiency of waste management systems: 35 Mt of CO2-eq, 31 kt of PM2.5-eq, and 25 billion MEUR2019 societal costs could be saved, simply by keeping EU consumption of PET constant.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalEnvironmental Science and Technology
    Volume56
    Issue number1
    Pages (from-to)501-511
    Number of pages11
    ISSN0013-936X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2022

    Keywords

    • Life-cycle assessment (LCA)
    • Life-cycle costing (LCC)
    • Plastic consumption
    • Sustainability assessment
    • Waste management
    • Recycling

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