Recycling of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in the EU: Recovery rates, material flows, and barriers.

ABSTRACT: Increasing plastic waste recycling is a milestone of European environmental policy to reduce environmental impacts and dependency on foreign resources. This is particularly challenging for plastic packaging waste, consisting of very heterogeneous fractions and typically rather contaminated. In this study, we collected primary data from plants sorting and recycling plastic packaging waste to illustrate process efficiencies, material flows, and barriers. We observed that significant losses of target materials occurred both at sorting and recycling stages. These were higher for polymers such as films, polypropylene and polystyrene, and lower for polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene. Applying material flow analysis, we estimated an overall end-of-life recycling rate for pos

SUBMITTER: Antonopoulos I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8162419 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature