A mathematical model and decision-support framework for material recovery, recycling and cascaded use

To achieve more than incremental reductions in resource consumption and waste, it will be necessary to develop new approaches to the systematic use and re-use of materials in the kind of system termed an industrial ecology. This paper presents a new methodology-CHAin Management of Materials and Products (CHAMP)-developed for modelling the flow of materials through a succession of uses with different performance requirements. Although developed specifically for polymers, the CHAMP approach is also applicable to other materials and products. Materials are characterised by a set of technical performance parameters, termed utilities. Geographical location is also treated as a utility to enable logistics-both distribution of products and collection of used products or waste-to be incorporated within the same modelling framework. Processing, transport and use are treated as activities through which a material can pass. The costs and environmental impacts of activities are included in the modelling framework, and are assessed on a life cycle basis by considering the complete supply chain of materials and energy used by each activity. The methodology includes acceptance criteria which determine whether a material is suitable for specific uses or activities. These criteria are applied within the model to guide selection of materials for specific applications and of successive uses for specific materials. A simple example of the CHAMP approach is given, to illustrate the kinds of problem to which it has been applied. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.