The impact of bioplastics production on climate change mitigation, fossil fuels and land-use

Tuukka Mattlar and Tommi Ekholm

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2025, vol. 212, issue C

Abstract: As plastics production remains heavily fossil-dependent, plastics produced from biomass feedstocks could be a climate-friendly alternative. However, extensive biomass production is linked to reduced carbon sinks, thus posing an opposing challenge. This study analyses large-scale bioplastics production and its impacts on the energy system and land-use using an Integrated Assessment Model, and quantifies its climate change mitigation potential alongside other system-level impacts. The results indicate that a shift from fossil-based plastics to bioplastics can mitigate climate change cost-efficiently, particularly if techno-economic advancements and the utilization of biomass from residues can be realized. The total use of fossil resources is decreased with the emergence of bioplastics; but total biomass use remains on a similar level than in the scenarios without bioplastics, as the energy use of biomass declines as a response to the increasing bioplastics production. By 2100, bioplastics production is projected to account for roughly a third of total plastics production, with PLA constituting the majority; while drop-in bioplastics have a minor role in overall production.

Keywords: Bioplastics; Integrated Assessment Models; Land-use; Climate change mitigation; Materials production; Fossil feedstocks; Bio-based feedstocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124009602
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:rensus:v:212:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124009602

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.115234

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().