Mapping Provincial Stocks and Wastes of Passenger-Vehicle Plastics in China Based on Dynamic Material Flow Analysis and GIS: 1985–2019

Youliang Chen, Yingxiang Quan, Hamed Karimian () and Xuexi Yang
Additional contact information
Youliang Chen: School of Civil and Surveying & Mapping Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Yingxiang Quan: School of Civil and Surveying & Mapping Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Hamed Karimian: School of Marine Technology and Geomatics, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China
Xuexi Yang: Department of Geo-Informatics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: As a polymer material, plastic is widely used in passenger vehicles for its light weight and low-cost advantages. China has accumulated a large amount of discarded automotive plastic in recent years, which has put increasing pressure on the environment and the recycling industry. A dynamic material flow model for estimating the plastic stock and waste in passenger vehicles was developed. Additionally, geospatial models were used to study the spatiotemporal evolution trend of passenger vehicle plastics. The results show: (1) passenger-vehicle plastic stock and waste in China increased rapidly from 1985 to 2019. By 2019, the passenger-vehicle plastic stock was 36.94 million tons, and the waste amount was 1.64 million tons, of which polypropylene accounted for the greatest proportion, and polyoxymethylene (POM) accounted for the least. (2) The stock and waste of passenger-vehicle plastics showed spatial dependency. (3) The spatial center of plastic waste was located in Henan Province, and the spatial center is shifting from north to south. (4) The GDP and the annual population are the main driving factors of passenger-vehicle plastic waste. This study will improve plastic waste management, resource recovery, and environmental sustainability decisions.

Keywords: passenger-vehicle plastic; material flow analysis; spatial autocorrelation; center of gravity migration; spatiotemporal evolution tree (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7230/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7230/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7230-:d:1133578

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().