Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling
The sustainable life-cycle management of plastics has become an international consensus. Plastic pollution primarily arises during the post-consumer solid waste management phase, particularly from mismanaged disposal and landfilling. Municipal waste incineration offers an economically viable solutio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/addc95 |
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| author | Shuying Huang Jingwen Wang Dungang Gu Tingting Hu Rui Liu Guanghui Li Jiaqi Lu |
| author_facet | Shuying Huang Jingwen Wang Dungang Gu Tingting Hu Rui Liu Guanghui Li Jiaqi Lu |
| author_sort | Shuying Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The sustainable life-cycle management of plastics has become an international consensus. Plastic pollution primarily arises during the post-consumer solid waste management phase, particularly from mismanaged disposal and landfilling. Municipal waste incineration offers an economically viable solution to address plastic pollution, but its significant CO _2 emissions challenge its sustainability in the context of global climate goals. To provide quantitative strategies for low-carbon plastic pollution management, this study analyzes the carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste in China across various mitigation pathways, including energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling (CR). The results reveal that under a high-carbon power grid and business-as-usual scenario, plastic waste generation of 53.66 MT in 2050 would result in a carbon footprint of 35.79 MT CO _2 -eq. The introduction of 50% bio-based plastics shows modest reductions (8.82 MT CO _2 -eq) due to the inclusion of biogenic CO _2 emissions. Increasing the recycling rate to 60% through a combination of mechanical recycling and CR achieves limited reductions (17.61 MT CO _2 -eq) due to the energy-intensive CR process. However, under low-carbon grid conditions, it can reach a negative carbon footprint of −21.52 MT CO _2 -eq with higher recycling rates owing to avoided plastic incineration and recovered materials. This study provides a quantitative framework for evaluating plastic waste management strategies under various decarbonization scenarios. It highlights the importance of integrating advanced recycling technologies, bio-economy, and sustainable energy systems for formulating data-driven policies aligned with climate action and plastic pollution mitigation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d5f05f21cbc74b9aba42d1361d02ea0e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-4505 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-d5f05f21cbc74b9aba42d1361d02ea0e2025-08-20T03:31:07ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability2634-45052025-01-015202501510.1088/2634-4505/addc95Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recyclingShuying Huang0Jingwen Wang1Dungang Gu2Tingting Hu3Rui Liu4Guanghui Li5Jiaqi Lu6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7864-1981Innovation Centre for Environment and Resources, Shanghai University of Engineering Science , No.333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering, State Key Lab of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, People’s Republic of ChinaInnovation Centre for Environment and Resources, Shanghai University of Engineering Science , No.333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of ChinaInnovation Centre for Environment and Resources, Shanghai University of Engineering Science , No.333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of ChinaInnovation Centre for Environment and Resources, Shanghai University of Engineering Science , No.333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of ChinaZhejiang Provincial Innovation Center of Green Petrochemical Technology , Ningbo Zhejiang 315048, People’s Republic of ChinaInnovation Centre for Environment and Resources, Shanghai University of Engineering Science , No.333 Longteng Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201620, People’s Republic of ChinaThe sustainable life-cycle management of plastics has become an international consensus. Plastic pollution primarily arises during the post-consumer solid waste management phase, particularly from mismanaged disposal and landfilling. Municipal waste incineration offers an economically viable solution to address plastic pollution, but its significant CO _2 emissions challenge its sustainability in the context of global climate goals. To provide quantitative strategies for low-carbon plastic pollution management, this study analyzes the carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste in China across various mitigation pathways, including energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling (CR). The results reveal that under a high-carbon power grid and business-as-usual scenario, plastic waste generation of 53.66 MT in 2050 would result in a carbon footprint of 35.79 MT CO _2 -eq. The introduction of 50% bio-based plastics shows modest reductions (8.82 MT CO _2 -eq) due to the inclusion of biogenic CO _2 emissions. Increasing the recycling rate to 60% through a combination of mechanical recycling and CR achieves limited reductions (17.61 MT CO _2 -eq) due to the energy-intensive CR process. However, under low-carbon grid conditions, it can reach a negative carbon footprint of −21.52 MT CO _2 -eq with higher recycling rates owing to avoided plastic incineration and recovered materials. This study provides a quantitative framework for evaluating plastic waste management strategies under various decarbonization scenarios. It highlights the importance of integrating advanced recycling technologies, bio-economy, and sustainable energy systems for formulating data-driven policies aligned with climate action and plastic pollution mitigation.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/addc95bio-based plasticswaste managementchemical recyclingenvironmental footprintgrid decarbonization |
| spellingShingle | Shuying Huang Jingwen Wang Dungang Gu Tingting Hu Rui Liu Guanghui Li Jiaqi Lu Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability bio-based plastics waste management chemical recycling environmental footprint grid decarbonization |
| title | Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling |
| title_full | Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling |
| title_fullStr | Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling |
| title_short | Future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition, bio-economy, and chemical recycling |
| title_sort | future carbon footprint of municipal plastic waste treatment in china across the nexus of energy transition bio economy and chemical recycling |
| topic | bio-based plastics waste management chemical recycling environmental footprint grid decarbonization |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/addc95 |
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