Biopolymer production and end of life comparisons using life cycle assessment

Troy A. Hottle, Melissa M. Bilec and Amy E. Landis

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2017, vol. 122, issue C, 295-306

Abstract: This paper presents an attributional life cycle assessment of biopolymers and traditional plastics using real world disposal methods based on collected data and existing inventories. The focus of this LCA is to investigate actual disposal methods for the end of life phase of biopolymers and traditional fossil-based plastics relative to their corresponding production impacts. This paper connects commonly available methods of disposal for traditional fossil-based plastics and the compostability of polylactic acid and thermoplastic starch to compare these materials not just based on production impacts but also on various scenarios for recycling, composting, and landfilling. Additionally, three traditional resins were evaluated (PET, HDPE, and LDPE) using fossil and bio-based production pathways to assess the performance of bio-based products in the recycling stream. The results demonstrate real environmental tradeoffs associated with agricultural production of plastics and the consequential changes resulting from shifting from recyclable to compostable products. The potential for methane production in landfills is a significant factor for global warming impacts associated with biopolymers while recycling provides major benefits in the global warming and fossil fuel depletion categories. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the relative importance of locale-specific factors such as travel distances and sorting technologies to the end of life treatment methods of recycling, composting, and landfilling. The results show that composting has some advantages, especially when compared to impacts associated with landfilling, but that recycling provides the greatest benefits at end of life.

Keywords: Bioplastic; Waste; LCA; Compost; Recycle; Polylactic acid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344917300708
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:recore:v:122:y:2017:i:c:p:295-306

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.03.002

Access Statistics for this article

Resources, Conservation & Recycling is currently edited by Ming Xu

More articles in Resources, Conservation & Recycling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kai Meng ().