Elsevier

Waste Management

Volume 71, January 2018, Pages 52-61
Waste Management

Recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.10.033Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Evaluation of recycling potential involves qualitative and quantitative assessment.

  • Manual sorting of mixed MSW plastics revealed 80% being monotype plastics.

  • Separately collected HDPE shows good potential for mechanical recycling.

  • Assessment of recycled material suitability for an application is case specific.

  • Major increase in plastic packaging recycling needed to impact the overall MSW recycling.

Abstract

Recycling of plastics is urged by the need for closing material loops to maintain our natural resources when striving towards circular economy, but also by the concern raced by observations of plastic scrap in oceans and lakes. Packaging industry is the sector using the largest share of plastics, hence packaging dominates in the plastic waste flow. The aim of this paper was to sum up the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland. This potential was evaluated based on the quantity, composition and mechanical quality of the plastic packaging waste generated by consumers and collected as a source-separated fraction, within the mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) or within energy waste.

Based on the assessment 86,000–117,000 tons (18 kg/person/a) of post-consumer plastic packaging waste was generated in Finland in 2014. The majority, 84% of the waste was in the mixed MSW flow in 2014. Due to the launching of new sorting facilities and separate collections for post-consumer plastic packaging in 2016, almost 40% of the post-consumer plastic packaging could become available for recycling. However, a 50% recycling rate for post-consumer plastic packaging (other than PET bottles) would be needed to increase the overall MSW recycling rate from the current 41% by around two percentage points.

The share of monotype plastics in the overall MSW plastics fraction was 80%, hence by volume the recycling potential of MSW plastics is high. Polypropylene (PP) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) were the most common plastic types present in mixed MSW, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS) and high density polyethylene (HDPE). If all the Finnish plastic packaging waste collected through the three collection types would be available for recycling, then 19,000–25,000 tons of recycled PP and 6000–8000 tons of recycled HDPE would be available on the local market. However, this assessment includes uncertainties due to performing the composition study only on mixed MSW plastic fraction. In order to obtain more precise figures of the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging, more studies should be performed on both the quantities and the qualities of plastic wastes.

The mechanical and rheological test results indicated that even plastic wastes originating from the mixed MSW, can be useful raw materials. Recycled HDPE showed a smaller decline in the mechanical properties than recycled PP. The origin and processing method of waste plastic seemed to have less effect on the mechanical quality than the type of plastic. The applicability of a plastic waste for a product needs to be assessed case by case, due to product specific quality requirements. In addition to mechanical properties, the chemical composition of plastic wastes is of major importance, in order to be able to restrict hazardous substances from being circulated undesirably.

In addition to quantity and quality of plastic wastes, the sustainability of the whole recycling chain needs to be assessed prior to launching operations so that the chain can be optimized to generate both environmental and economic benefits to society and operators.

Introduction

Recycling of plastics is urged by the need for closing material loops to maintain our natural resources when striving towards Circular Economy, but also by the alarming observations of plastic scrap being spread in oceans and lakes due to both land-based and sea-based activities. The land-based activities include e.g. littering by recreational or tourism activities, wastewater emissions and waste management processes, whereas sea-based activities include e.g. fisheries, aquaculture, shipping and maritime–based tourism (UNEP, 2016). Recycling of plastics is still on a low level. In 2012 the annual volume of globally traded waste plastics was around 15 million tons, less than 5% of the new plastics production (Veilis, 2014). According to Ellen McArthur Foundation (2016) globally only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling, and even less is retained for a subsequent use due to the losses in sorting and reprocessing.

Higher than current recycling rates are proposed in the European commission revised proposal for the Circular Economy package (Circular Economy strategy, 2016). The target for municipal solid waste (MSW, where plastic is one component) recycling and preparation for reuse is suggested to be raised to 65% by 2030. For plastic packaging waste, 2020, 45% recycling target is set for 2020 (COM(2014) 397 final). The target for recycling of plastic packaging waste rises to 60% (COM(2014) 397 final) in 2025.

The global plastics production is constantly increasing. In 50 years, plastics production has surged from 15 million tons in 1964 to 311 million tons in 2014 (Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2016). Within the past years the increase has remained quite slow, globally the production has grown with 12 million tons from 2009 to 2014 and in Europe from 55 million tons in 2009 to 59 million tons in 2014 (Plastics Europe, 2015). The Finnish plastics production represents a percentage of the European production, being around 600,000 tons in 2013 (Plastics Europe, 2015).

The sector using the most plastics is packaging industry, with a share of 39.9% in Europe in 2015, followed by building and construction, with a share of 19.7% in Europe in 2015 (Plastics Europe, 2016). Most plastic packaging is discarded after a relatively short service life, while other products like the ones used in construction have a longer life. Consequentially, packaging dominates in the plastic waste flow representing 63% of the overall 25.2 million tons of post-consumer plastic waste that ended up in the waste stream in Europe in 2012 (Hestin et al., 2015; Plastics Europe, 2013). Plastic packaging is used for a variety of purposes, ranging from food and beverage packaging to toy and electronics packaging. The primary function of a packaging is to protect the product; hence different types of products require different properties from the packaging. From this follows that the plastic packaging waste is rather heterogeneous.

The aim of this paper was to sum up the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland. This potential was evaluated based on the quantity and quality of the plastic packaging waste generated by consumers and collected as a source-separated fraction, within the MSW or within a separate fraction called energy waste (Fig. 1). In order to estimate the recycling potential, 1) the volumes of the flows of plastic packaging waste collected separately or within mixed MSW were estimated, 2) the composition of MSW plastic fraction was studied in a case study, and 3) the mechanical, thermal and rheological characteristics of samples obtained from separately collected plastic packaging and from mixed MSW plastic waste were studied.

The practical implementation of waste management and the performance of separate collection systems vary in different regions and between countries, hence the composition of MSW also varies. This Finnish case study can be considered as an example of a sparsely populated Nordic country. The Finnish MSW management systems are mainly based on source separation and separate collection of recoverable waste fractions. Only few facilities exist for industrial sorting of mixed MSW.

Section snippets

Quantity and composition of plastic packaging waste

In order to evaluate the resin types composing the packaging waste, the source of that waste should be considered. Packaging waste is generated in households, as well as in administrative, service and business operations and industrial activities (Fig. 1). The focus of this work is on post-consumer packaging waste originating from consumers. This waste is sorted and collected differently in different regions. In Finland post-consumer plastic packaging is collected either separately in the bring

Assessment of post-consumer plastic packaging waste volumes

In order to assess the recycling potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland, two types of waste streams were studied, namely plastic packaging collected as part of mixed MSW and plastic packaging collected separately. Additionally, the amount of plastic packaging in energy waste was estimated. Data for the total amount of Finnish mixed MSW and energy waste from households were based on Salmenperä et al. (2016), who modeled the origin of different MSW waste flows in Finland.

Volumes of post-consumer plastic packaging waste

Annually around 890,000 tons of mixed MSW is collected from households in Finland (Salmenperä et al., 2016). This mixed MSW contains in average 7.3% hard plastic packaging and 7.6% soft plastic packaging (Finnish Solid Waste Association, 2016). Our composition studies from Uusimaa and Southwest regions (Section 3.2) showed somewhat lower percentages for hard plastic packaging, but similar for the soft ones, as follows:

  • Uusimaa: hard plastic packaging 6.7%, soft plastic packaging 7.7%.

  • Southwest:

Conclusions

In this study, the resource potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste collected either separately, within the mixed MSW, or within energy waste was assessed by calculating the potential flows of post-consumer plastic packaging from different collections, estimating the plastic type composition of the MSW plastics through a sorting experiment and by analyzing mechanical properties of plastic samples representing the different flows.

Based on our assessment 86,000–117,000 tons of

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and the companies that participated the research program Material Value Chains (arvifinalreport.fi) for financing the research which produced the results presented in this paper.

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    Present address: Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 527, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland.

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