Eco-design of the remembrance poppy: a life cycle assessment study

International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2024

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are sensitive snapshots of a products’ environmental impact, and their findings depend on how they are framed and modelled. Variations in assumptions, functional unit or system boundaries can completely change results and undermine their applicability and final outcome. In the framework of the circular economy, particularly important assumptions for reusable and single-use packaging include the number of reuses, weight, sanitising method, transport logistics and any other aspect which may influence the use phase. In addition, these variables are not fixed over time and may be affected by future changes in product design, consumers’ habits or the supply chain management. As a consequence, the impact of different packaging options is not immutable and could change. Therefore, while comparing reusable versus single-use packaging, there is an urgent need to clarify and integrate the methodological requirements necessary to guarantee the reliability of studies and allow for impartial comparability of results.

RG, 2023

Plastic pollution has become an escalating global crisis, exerting detrimental impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. This research paper delves into the pivotal role of plastic recycling as a solution to mitigate the dire consequences of plastic waste. By analyzing the economic, technological, and policy dimensions of plastic recycling, this study underscores its significance in preserving the environment and fostering a sustainable future. Through comprehensive research and analysis, this paper highlights the challenges, opportunities, and future prospects associated with plastic recycling, emphasizing the need for collective action and behavioral shifts to combat plastic pollution.

Sustainability

The global demand for plastic is expected to double in the next 20 years. The increasing demand for Single-Use Plastic Products (SUPPs) has become one of the main environmental problems in many developing countries, including Sri Lanka, through direct and indirect means, in the way of excessive consumption and the pollution of the environment through waste generation. In this way, there is a pressing need to accelerate the sustainability evaluation, comparison, impact mitigation and policy recommendation of SUPPs to address the environmental impacts and sustainable development. Therefore, this study aims to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of SUPPs for policy decision making in Sri Lanka using life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques. Accordingly, the most popular and widely used single-use plastic products, which are under consideration for regulation in Sri Lanka, and their possible alternatives, are considered for this LCA study. The results reveal that SUPPs produced...

Design as Common Good / Framing Design through Pluralism and Social Values, 2021

Through case studies of plastic chairs, this paper examines if product designers can successfully reduce the environmental impact of their work by embracing recent innovations in plastics. The 21st Century has seen growing interest, from both designers and manufacturers, in xperimenting with alternatives to virgin fossil-based plastics, including recyclates and bioplastics. A simplified eco-audit tool has been developed to enable comparison of the environment impact of 32 chairs made from renewable carbon-based (‘green’) plastics. Preliminary findings suggest that designers experimenting with recycled materials are more likely to succeed in reducing the environmental impact of their work, compared with those working with bioplastics or natural fibres. Hybridisation is identified as a key common strategy among those working with ‘green’ plastics. This research is of particular interest for designers seeking to reduce our dependence on fossil-based plastics, supporting their central role in the systems-level change required to address the climate emergency.

2017

Now-a-days plastic is one of the most used materials in the world. Life without the use of vast range of plastic products makes it almost unthinkable. However, due to its chemical structure and non-degradability, it has given birth to the various abhorring issues of urban pollution, marine pollution, demand for adequate waste management, and heavy recycling among others. In addition, this situation is further exacerbated by the extensive use of petro-based plastics. Nevertheless bio-based plastics seem quite promising to reduce aforementioned issues. Hence, it is essential to develop a methodology for a system-wide analysis, which will aid the plastic industry in understanding sustainability. To this aim, this paper develops a methodology by conducting a survey in plastic industries of Pakistan and then deploying the Analytic Hierarchic Process to compare petro-based plastics and bio-based plastics to measure their sustainability. Results reveal that bio-based plastics are more sust...

Sustainability, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Sustainability

As designing with recycled materials is becoming indispensable in the context of a circular economy, we argue that understanding how recycled plastics are perceived by stakeholders involved in the front end of the design process, is essential to achieve successful application in practice, beyond the current concept of surrogates according to industry. Based on existing frameworks, 34 experiential scales with semantic opposites were used to evaluate samples of three exemplary recycled plastics by two main industrial stakeholders: 30 material engineers and 30 designers. We describe four analyses: (i) defining experiential material characteristics, (ii) significant differences between the materials, (iii) level of agreement of respondents, and (iv) similarities and differences between designers and engineers. We conclude that the three materials have different perceptual profiles or identities that can initiate future idea generation for high-quality applications. The study illustrates...

Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2020

The plastics are becoming one of the most discussed topics in media and research. They have been branded sometimes as evil, which has to be replaced, in some cases at any cost. However, an equitable analysis and assessment are needed comparing all pros and cons based on environmental footprints quantification with a complete life cycle assessment. These should include assessment of possible health risks, consumed energy, released emissions and effluents, as well as consumption of raw materials, water and dealing with the wastewater. The assessment of recyclability, reprocessing and environmental burden of disposal phases are also needed. This presented work tends to contribute to the discussion of what recommendations should be developed to the industry and business to minimize the environmental impacts. A novel Plastic Waste Footprint is proposed to understand the net potential impacts of plastic and to facilitate the decision making for plastic replacement. This study highlighted that plastic could be a friend if the Circular Economy (CE) is appropriately followed. Reduction (refrain, redesign/reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose), recycle and recovery (no leaking into the ocean or other streams) play the decisive roles to minimize and recover the embodied energy, promoting sustainable plastic values chain. Policy to regulate/encourage manufacturers toward sustainable practice (taxation, end of life collection, an incentive of using secondary raw materials) and education (refrain, reuse, separation and recycle) on the potential users are important from not evolving the plastic from friend with high functionality to foe.

Waste recycling activities contribute to critical environmental challenges such as Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and depletion of fossil resources, mainly due to the consumption of fossil energy. However, material recovery from waste recycling can offset both GHG emissions and resource depletion that would otherwise occur through the production of an equivalent amount of materials through virgin production processes. This study aims to assess the effects of packaging plastics recycling on GHG mitigation and resource saving by using a practical example in Yokohama. In order to quantify the environmental impacts, the life cycle assessment framework was designed by taking into consideration all of the phases of the life-cycle such as transportation, baling, recycling etc. The functional unit was defined as one tonne of packaging plastic waste recycled in a recycling plant in Shizuoka. The potential material recovery from recycling amounted to 903 kg of plastic granules per tonne of pl...

Lcm 2013, 2013

The PlasticsEurope methodology for Life Cycle Inventory in the chemical and plastics sector continues to be developed with a view towards compatibility and globally harmonised procedures. Ongoing updates concern all relevant precursors and polymers. Challenges include data requirements, emerging methodologies, and decision support. An outlook is given to emerging trends and best practices in industrial LCA and footprinting.

Trucost helps companies and investors to achieve success by understanding environmental issues in business terms. Our data-driven insights enable organizations to manage risks and identify opportunities for growth.

IJRASET, 2021

Plastic is the most deadly product which can amplify the climate change affect. It is a solid waste which is durable. Plastic waste is a 400 years of problem, where the plastic production contributes to 99% change in the climate by the burning of fossil fuels and then transportation , the over all process in the production of plastic has resulted in climate change, followed by only 9 % of the plastic waste is recycled. 90 % are thrown into the river , every year 8.6 million tones of plastic waste is dumped in the oceans , seas which has ultimately affected humans we can easting , drinking and breathing plastic resulting in the death of thousand of people across the globe, we need to cut down our production rate and reuse and recycle what ever is possible, we need to adopt the use of jute or cloth bags instead of plastic carry bags , use banana leaves instead of paper plates, use of copper bottles for water. The plastic waste should be properly managed and thrown into the required place or in bins instead on the road side or near the rivers. It is a very important to keep our environment free from plastic which can resolve a quarter of the problem related to climate change.

Circular Economy and Sustainability, 2022

Current rising concerns about environmental and climate impacts in production, consumption and end-of-life of plastics have led to efforts to switch from linear to circular economy of plastics in Europe. Greenhouse gas emissions are likely to decrease with a transition to a circular system; however, a systematic and integrated perspective on plastics and the carbon cycle is currently missing in the debate on plastics. In this study, a model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions of the current mostly linear plastics value chain of the EU in 2018 and a future scenario, 2025 model, were created. By 2025 if current policy targets are reached, the plastic packaging recycling rate should be 50%, PET-based drinking bottles should include 25% recycled content, 77% collection target for plastic bottles, 10 Mt recyclates should enter the markets, uptake of bio-based plastics is estimated by European bioplastics to increase from current 1 to 1.32% and landfilling will continue to decrease according to the current trend at 3.85%. Total greenhouse gas emissions caused by the current plastics value chain are estimated at 208 million tonnes of CO2-eq. The 2025 model estimates that total plastics value chain emissions will be 182 Mt of CO2-eq. Reduction potential is approximately 26 Mt of CO2-eq or 13%. Highlights • The total annual greenhouse gas emissions caused by the plastics value chain, for the plastics volume converted in the European Union in 2018, is estimated at 208 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. • The majority, 63%, of the greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union plastics value chain are caused by plastics production. Converting polymers into products accounts for 22%, and plastic waste treatment at end-of-life adds another 15%, mainly due to incineration. • Assuming the EU Circular Plastics related targets are met, the 2025 model estimates that the total plastics value chain greenhouse gas emissions will be 182 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The current plastic value chain's (2018) greenhouse gas emissions are 208 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The saving estimation is 26 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or approximately 13%. • There is a significant untapped potential to reduce the CO 2 emissions in the plastics value chain lying in the low recycling rates. Higher recycling rates would contribute to CO 2 emission reductions because (1) if plastic waste is recycled instead of incinerated, CO 2 emissions related to incineration are avoided; and (2) recycled outputs can replace the production of primary raw materials and therefore avoid the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions of these processes.

Journal of Environmental Pollution and Management

The paper critically examines the rising global demand of plastics including the role of major countries responsible for the mismanaged plastic waste by 2025. It also outlines the growing importance of adopting Plastic Replacement Alternatives as global solution to mitigate plastic pollution. Plastic pollution affects the health of millions of people around the world. Synthetic plastics are slow to degrade posing a huge threat to the entire ecosystem. Recent studies conclude that human beings are daily consuming bits of micro-plastics through food and water. Micro-plastics have also been found in 90% of the packaged drinking water. Approximately 9 million tons of plastic waste is disposed annually and it is expected to double by 2025. If present trend continues there will be more than 18 billion metric tons of non-biodegradable plastic both in land and oceans. Also, due to recent Covid-19 pandemic, there is a sudden increase in demand for single-use plastic items. The problems related to post pandemic plastic pollution will become even more complex requiring a collaborated and sustainable approach in collection and effective disposal of plastic waste in order to mitigate its harmful impact on the environment.