A new study using life cycle inventory (LCI) conclusively shows that the recycling of plastics, specifically PET and HDPE, translates into significant savings in energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study, entitled Final Report – Life Cycle Inventory of 100% Postconsumer PET and HDPE Recycled Resin from Postconsumer Containers and Packaging, used LCI methodology to quantify the energy requirements, solid wastes, and atmospheric and waterborne emissions for the processes required to collect post-consumer PET and HDPE packaging, sort and separate the material, and then reprocess it into clean recycled resin. The calculations are based on the tonnage of post-consumer PET and HDPE recovered in the U.S. in 2008, and the energy required to collect, sort and domestically reprocess the tonnage of plastics containers, including bottles, recovered in 2008. Based on the LCI study results, and data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the generation of clean recycled resin required 71 trillion Btu less than the amount of energy that would be required to produce the same tonnage of virgin PET and HDPE resin. That’s the amount of energy equivalent to the annual energy use of 750,000 homes in the U.S. The corresponding savings in GHG emission was 2.1 million tons of C02 equivalents – an amount comparable to taking 360,000 cars off the road. The study, conducted by Franklin Associates Ltd., was jointly sponsored by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR), the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the PET Resin Association (PETRA). The full report may be accessed by
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Source : Canadian Plastics Industry Associations (CPIA)