Circular economy of expanded polystyrene container production: Environmental benefits of household waste recycling considering renewable energies

Plastic industry is ubiquitous worldwide, and the generation of plastic waste has been steadily increasing to the point of being considered a high impact pollutant. The expanded polystyrene (EPS) plastic industry aware of the issue is interested on trying recycling post-consumer material. Through a recent study made in an alliance between the private sector and the academy, the feasibility of the EPS mechanical recycling was proven; therefore, a possible solution through a circular economy model. The aim of the present paper was to investigate the potential environmental impacts avoided by the circular economy scenario previously developed, through a life cycle assessment (LCA) performed for the city of Guayaquil, where 64% of all the plastic manufacturing industries in the country are located. The entire life cycle of 1.00 kg of 5 x 5 inch. food containers were assessed from the production stage until its end-of-life stage: focusing on three different valorization paths, circular economy closed-loop (container-to-container) proposal with electricity share of 2019 and another with the 2027 future one, and traditional linear economy (container-to-landfill). Results showed that the scenario C that considers the recycling of post-consumer EPS waste and the electricity share proposed for 2027 have lower impacts in 14 out of 16 categories, in specific for the Land use (-31%), Ozone Depletion (-28%), Acidification (-24%) and Terrestrial and Marine Eutrophication (-21%). These results strongly suggest that the recycling of these kind of plastic waste could benefit the environment greatly. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

The plastic industry is widespread globally, with increasing plastic waste generation that is considered a high impact pollutant. A study focused on the mechanical recycling of expanded polystyrene (EPS) to explore a circular economy model as a potential solution. The study assessed the potential environmental impacts of different valorization paths for food containers in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and found that recycling post-consumer EPS waste and adopting future electricity shares can significantly reduce environmental impacts.