Environmental Impact of Plastic Recycling in Terms of Energy Consumption: A Comparison of Japan’s Mechanical and Chemical Recycling Technologies

Chaoxia Shan, Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo () and Hiroshi Onoda
Additional contact information
Chaoxia Shan: Graduate School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 1620041, Japan
Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo: Environmental Research Institute, Waseda University, Tokyo 1620041, Japan
Hiroshi Onoda: Graduate School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 1620041, Japan

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: In Japan, mechanical plastic recycling has been widely practiced. In recent years, the chemical recycling method has been gaining interest, especially due to its high-quality products similar to virgin materials. Understanding the environmental impact of both methods from the energy consumption standpoint is crucial so that attempts to preserve plastic resources can be based in the most energy-sustainable way. This research aims to determine the environmental impact of mechanical recycling and two types of chemical recycling technologies (coke oven and gasification) by analyzing their energy usage and environmental loads. The results relating to the electricity consumption and water usage show that mechanical recycling results in a 17% share of global warming potential (GWP), coke oven 51%, and gasification 32%. Although mechanical recycling results in a lower GWP, chemical recycling yields highly valuable products and byproducts that can be reused in its processes, such as steam and industrial water, reducing the overall environmental load. These recovered materials are also potentially useful for other industrial processes in an industrial symbiosis ecosystem.

Keywords: municipal plastic waste; recycling technologies; energy use; environmental impact assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (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/1996-1073/16/5/2199/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2199/ (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:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2199-:d:1079428

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

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