1 Introduction
2 Method
2.1 Scope and functional unit
2.2 System boundary and inventory
2.3 Recycled content and recyclability
2.3.1 Background
Eq | Virgin content contribution | Recycled content contribution | Recyclability contribution | Recoverability contribution | Disposal contribution |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
I Equation 1 | \({E}_{v}\left(1-R1\right)\) | \(R1\left[\left(1-{A}^{p,o}\right)\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-{{E}_{d}}^{o}\right)-{A}^{p,o}\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}\left.(\Delta {E}^{o}-{{E}_{v}}^{o}\right)\right]\) | \(R2\left[{E}_{r,rec}-{(1-A}^{p,*})\left({{E}_{r}}^{*}-{{E}_{d}}^{*}\right)+{A}^{p,*}\frac{{Q}^{*}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{*}}\left.(\Delta {E}^{*}-{{E}_{v}}^{*}\right)\right]\) | \(R3\left({E}_{er}-{C}_{er}\right)\) | \(\left(1-R2-R3\right){E}_{d}\) |
II Equation 2 | \({E}_{v}\left(1-\frac{R1}{2}\right)\) | \(\frac{R1}{2}\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{{E}_{v}}^{o}-{{E}_{d}}^{o}\right)\) | \(\frac{R2}{2}\left({{E}_{r}}^{*}-\frac{{Q}^{*}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{*}}{{E}_{v}}^{*}+{E}_{d}\right)\) | \(R3\left({E}_{er}-{C}_{er}\right)\) | \(\left(1-R2-R3\right){E}_{d}\) |
III Equation 3 | \({E}_{v}\left(1-R1\right)\) | \(R1\bullet \left[{A}^{ef}{{E}_{r}}^{o}+(1-{A}^{ef})\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{E}_{v}^{o}\right]\) | \((1-{A}^{ef})R2\left({{E}_{r}}^{*}-\frac{{Q}^{*}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{*}}{E}_{v}^{*}\right)\) | \(R3\left({E}_{er}-{C}_{er}\right)\) | \(\left(1-R2-R3\right){E}_{d}\) |
Term | Definition | ||||
Aef | Market conditions parameter used in PEF (Aef 0, market for recyclables is high or high-quality recyclates; Aef 1, market for recyclables is low or low-quality recyclates) | ||||
Ap,o | Market parameter for the recycled content. Ap,o 1, demand is high, Ap,o 0, demand is low | ||||
Ap,* | Market parameter for the supplied recycled material. Ap,o 1, demand is high, Ap,o 0, demand is low | ||||
Cer | LCI of the substituted energy source | ||||
Ed | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from disposal of waste material at the EoL of the product analysed (e.g. landfilling, incineration, pyrolysis) | ||||
Edo | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the avoided disposal of waste material (e.g. landfilling, incineration, etc.) at the EoL of the material where the recycled content is taken from | ||||
Ed* | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the induced disposal of waste material (e.g. landfilling, incineration, etc.) at the EoL of recycled materials from other product value chains that are substituted by the recycled material | ||||
Ero | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the recycling process of the recycled content, including collection, sorting and transportation processes | ||||
Er* | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the recycling process at the End-of-Life stage of the displaced recycling process in other value chains, including collection, sorting and transportation processes | ||||
Er,rec | LCI (per unit of analysis) for the production of the supplied recycled material, including the disposal of losses during recycling | ||||
Ev | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the acquisition and pre-processing of virgin material | ||||
Evo | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the induced acquisition and pre-processing of the virgin material where the recycled content is taken from | ||||
Ev* | LCI (per unit of analysis) arising from the acquisition and pre-processing of virgin material assumed to be substituted by the recycled materials at EoL. If only closed-loop recycling takes place: EV* = EVo | ||||
Qo | Quality of the secondary material used as input | ||||
Qvo | Quality of the primary material where the recycled content is taken from | ||||
Q* | Quality of the secondary material, i.e. the quality of the recycled or reused material at EoL | ||||
Qv* | Quality of the primary material substituted by the recycled material at EoL | ||||
R1 | Recycled (or reused) content of material, i.e. the proportion of material in the input to the production that has been recycled in a previous system (0 ≤ R1 ≤ 1; dimensionless) | ||||
R2 | Recycling output rate, i.e. proportion of material in the product effectively recycled (or reused) into a subsequent system. R2 shall therefore consider the inefficiencies in the collection, sorting and recycling (or reuse) processes (0 ≤ R2 ≤ 1; dimensionless) | ||||
R3 | Energy recovery rate, i.e. proportion of material in the product used for energy recovery (e.g. incineration with energy recovery) at EoL (0 ≤ R3 ≤ 1; dimensionless) | ||||
ηo | Conversion efficiency of the waste into a recycled material that is used as recycled content | ||||
η* | Conversion efficiency of the End-of-Life waste into a recycled material that is produced at the end of life | ||||
∆Eo | LCI due to additional (or decreased) downstream elementary flows in relation to use and disposal of recycled material, as compared with the primary material substituted, by the alternative user of the demanded recycled material | ||||
∆E* | LCI due to additional (or decreased) downstream elementary flows in relation to use and disposal of recycled material, as compared with the primary material substituted, by the user of the supplied recycled material |
2.3.2 Approach taken
Alternative material which use in other product value chains is induced/substituted | Ap (Aef) | Description of the situation | Resulting formula for the recycled content | What is modelled by the recycled content | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Default | The same material as the material substituted in the foreground system \({({E}_{v}}^{o}={E}_{v})\). The product under study represents the user of the recycled material | 0.5 (0.5) | There is an established demand for the recycled material, although people still have the preference for the alternative material, especially if the price of the recycled material would go up | I \(R1\left[0.5\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-\frac{{{E}_{d}}^{o}}{{\eta }^{^\circ }}\right)-0.5\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}\left.(\Delta {E}^{o}-{{E}_{v}}^{o}\right)\right]\) II \(\frac{R1}{2}\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{{E}_{v}}^{o}-{{E}_{d}}^{o}\right)\) III \(R1\bullet \left[0.5{{E}_{r}}^{o}+(1-0.5)\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{E}_{v}^{o}\right]\) | Inventory of the recycling process and (for I and II) avoided inventory of waste treatment are modelled for 50%. Induced demand of the alternative primary material in competing product value chains and (only in I) associated inventory related to the distribution, use, or end of life of this alternative material are modelled for 50% |
Variant 1 | The same material as the material substituted in the foreground system \({({E}_{v}}^{o}={E}_{v})\). The product under study represents the user of the recycled material | 0 (1) | The demand for the recycled material is very low | I \(R1({{E}_{r}}^{o}-\frac{{{E}_{d}}^{o}}{{\eta }^{^\circ }})\) II \(\frac{1}{2}\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-{{E}_{d}}^{o}\right)\) III \(R1\bullet {{E}_{r}}^{o}\) | Inventory of the recycling process (only for 50% in Eq. II) and (for Eqs. I and II) avoided inventory of waste treatment |
Variant 2 | The same material as the material substituted in the foreground system \({({E}_{v}}^{o}={E}_{v})\). The product under study represents the user of the recycled material | 1 (0) | The demand for the recycled material is very high | I \(R1\left(\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{{E}_{v}}^{o}-\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}\Delta {E}^{o}\right)\) II \(\frac{R1}{2}\left({{E}_{r}}^{o}-\frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{{E}_{v}}^{o}-{{E}_{d}}^{o}\right)\) III \(R1\bullet \frac{{Q}^{o}}{{{Q}_{v}}^{o}}{E}_{v}^{o}\) | Induced demand of the alternative primary material in competing product value chains (only for 50% in Eq II), and (only for I) associated inventory related to the distribution, use, or end of life of this alternative material. II also models the inventory of the recycling process and avoided inventory of waste treatment for 50% |
2.4 Biogenic carbon accounting
2.4.1 Background
2.4.2 Approach taken
2.5 Land use changes
2.5.1 Background
2.5.2 Approach taken
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Recycled content and recyclability
3.2 Dynamic characterisation of (biogenic) carbon emissions
3.3 Land use changes
Polymer | Feedstock | Crop demand | Land demandα | Schmidt et al. (2015) | Valin et al. (2015) | EU Parliament and Council of the EU (2015) | BSI (2011) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
kg FU−1 | m2a FU−1 | kg CO2-eq. (pw m2a)−1 | kg CO2-eq. FU−1 | kg CO2-eq. (m2a)−1 | kg CO2-eq. FU−1 | kg CO2-eq. (m2a)−1 | kg CO2-eq. FU−1 | kg CO2-eq. (m2a)−1 | kg CO2-eq. FU−1 | ||
B-HDPE | BR Sugarcane | 28.6 | 3.4 (5.1)β | 0.126 | 0.64 | 0.20 | 0.67 | 0.18 | 0.59 | 1.08 | 3.64 |
MA-PLA | US Maize | 3.1 | 3.3 (3.4)β | 0.126 | 0.09 | 0.09 | 0.29 | 0.06 | 0.20 | 0.003 | 0.01 |
B-PBS | US Maize | 2.8 | 2.96 (3.0)β | 0.126 | 0.13 | 0.09 | 0.29 | 0.06 | 0.18 | 0.029 | 0.09 |