Plastic Packaging Waste Management in Iceland : Challenges and Opportunities from a Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

Funding Information: This research received funding from The University of Iceland Research Fund and Matvælasjóður (Food development fund) for the project UMMAT (2021–2022). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. The management of plastic packaging waste is advancing quickly, and new strategies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability
Main Authors: Ögmundarson, Ólafur, Kalweit, Laura Sophie, Venkatachalam, Venkateshwaran, Kristjánsdóttir, Rakel, Endres, Hans Josef, Spierling, Sebastian
Other Authors: Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
end-of-life
Iceland
life cycle assessment
plastic packaging
plastic waste management
Computer Science (miscellaneous)
Geography
Planning and Development
Renewable Energy
Sustainability and the Environment
Building and Construction
Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Hardware and Architecture
Computer Networks and Communications
Management
Monitoring
Policy and Law
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/4400
https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416837
Description
Summary:Funding Information: This research received funding from The University of Iceland Research Fund and Matvælasjóður (Food development fund) for the project UMMAT (2021–2022). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. The management of plastic packaging waste is advancing quickly, and new strategies are being implemented worldwide for better resource recovery. To assess the environmental benefits of new ways of handling plastic packaging waste, we need to first evaluate current waste management options in order to create a basis for comparison. In this study, the environmental impacts of plastic packaging waste handling are assessed for the first time in Iceland using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that mechanical recycling, despite including the impacts of exporting the waste to different European countries, has more environmental benefits than landfilling the waste in Iceland. Increasing the recycling rates of plastic waste in Iceland is also identified as a promising option from a resource efficiency perspective. With better waste sorting, Iceland can become more environmentally sustainable, ensuring that plastic materials land in recycling processes, and thereby enhancing the flow of material in the circular economy. Peer reviewed

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