Danish Plastic Mass Flows Analysis

Edward Vingwe, Edgar Towa and Arne Remmen
Additional contact information
Edward Vingwe: Department of Planning and Development, The Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark
Edgar Towa: Institute for Environmental Management and Land-Use Planning, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Arne Remmen: Department of Planning and Development, The Technical Faculty of IT and Design, Aalborg University, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: In this paper, material flows and resource potentials for plastics at a national level in Denmark are mapped using an Environmentally Extended Multiregional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) database. EE-MRIO offers an operative improvement to current and prevalent methods for assessing the industrial and societal metabolism of resources, including plastics. The Exiobase is applied to map (1) the major sources, (2) calculate the total supply, (3) uses of plastics and waste generation, and (4) end of life pathways in order to indicate the potentials of plastics in the circular economy in Denmark with a focus on recycling. Furthermore, it elaborates how and why this method for performing Mass Flow Analysis (MFA) differs from mainstream assessments of material flows and from default uses of national statistical data. Overall, the results are that Denmark has a total supply of ≈551 kilotonnes (Kt) of plastics, out of which ≈522 Kt are used domestically and ≈168 Kt of plastic waste are generated annually. Out of the yearly amount of plastic waste, ≈50% is incinerated and 26% is recycled. These results indicate significant potentials for applying circular economy strategies and identify relevant sectors for closing the plastic loops. However, other initiatives are necessary, such as improvements in product design strategies, in the collection and sorting systems as well as in cross-sectoral collaboration.

Keywords: circular economy; sustainability indicators; sustainable consumption and production; mass flow analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9639/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9639/ (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:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9639-:d:447321

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 ().