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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of Chemical Electrolyte Recycling for Vanadium Flow Batteries: A Comprehensive Study
ClearAssessing the environmental footprint of recycled plastic pellets: A life-cycle assessment perspective
This study used life-cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impact of producing recycled plastic pellets from waste polyolefin plastics. While recycling reduced carbon emissions compared to making new plastic, the process still required significant energy, especially when solvent recovery was maximized. The research is relevant to the microplastics problem because it shows that even recycling processes need optimization to truly reduce the environmental footprint of plastic waste.
How Relevant Are Direct Emissions of Microplastics into Freshwater from an LCA Perspective?
This study assessed the relevance of direct microplastic emissions into freshwater from a life cycle assessment perspective, providing initial inventory data and identifying key knowledge gaps needed to incorporate microplastic impacts into environmental assessments.
Environmental Evaluation of Chemical Plastic Waste Recycling: A Life Cycle Assessment Approach
This paper is not relevant to microplastics research; it performs a life cycle assessment of chemical recycling of plastic waste via pyrolysis in Spain, concluding the process produces lower carbon emissions than fossil diesel, but the focus is on industrial energy recovery rather than microplastic environmental impacts.
Recycling Microplastics to Fabricate Anodes for Lithium‐Ion Batteries: From Removal of Environmental Troubles via Electrocoagulation to Useful Resources
Researchers developed an electrocoagulation-based process to remove microplastics from wastewater, then converted the recovered plastic-containing iron flocs into anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, demonstrating a circular approach that converts a waste stream into useful energy storage components.
Recycling of Plastics as a Strategy to Reduce Life Cycle GHG Emission, Microplastics and Resource Depletion
This study quantified the environmental benefits of recycling widely consumed plastic polymers, demonstrating that increased plastic recycling significantly reduces life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and resource depletion.
Environmental impact of microplastic emissions from wastewater treatment plant through life cycle assessment
Researchers used life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental impact of microplastic emissions from wastewater treatment plants. They found that microplastics accounted for 94% of the total ecotoxicity impact at the midpoint level, surpassing heavy metals and nutrients by at least two orders of magnitude, with polyethylene, polystyrene, and polypropylene identified as the most impactful polymer types.
Life cycle assessment based optimization of scenarios of reusable glass bottles using context-specific key parameters
Researchers analyzed the environmental trade-offs of switching from single-use to reusable glass bottles, finding that reusable systems can cut both carbon emissions and microplastic pollution, but only when designed with context-specific factors like local energy sources and trip distances in mind.
Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Technological, Environmental, Organizational and Policy Impacts
This systematic review of 88 studies examines the technological, environmental, organizational, and policy dimensions of electric vehicle adoption, finding substantial lifecycle greenhouse gas reductions compared to combustion vehicles, particularly when charged with renewable energy. The study is not directly related to microplastic research.
Recycling Microplastics to Fabricate Anodes for Lithium‐Ion Batteries: From Removal of Environmental Troubles via Electrocoagulation to Useful Resources (Adv. Sci. 8/2023)
Researchers collected microplastics using electrocoagulation and then converted them into carbon-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The approach removes environmental plastic pollution while creating functional battery components from the waste. This circular approach demonstrates a promising strategy for turning microplastic pollution into a useful resource.
Global discharge of microplastics from mechanical recycling of plastic waste
Researchers found that the mechanical recycling process for plastics actually generates significant amounts of new microplastics, with global emissions from recycling projected to grow from 0.017 million tonnes in 2000 to 0.749 million tonnes by 2060. While recycling accounted for about 3.1% of total microplastic emissions in 2017, this share could grow as recycling increases. The study highlights an important paradox: efforts to reduce plastic waste through recycling can themselves contribute to microplastic pollution unless wastewater treatment at recycling facilities is improved.
When technology meets sustainability – microplastic removal from industrial wastewater including impact analysis and life cycle assessment
Researchers conducted an environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a novel pilot plant designed to remove microplastics and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from industrial plastics-processing wastewater, evaluating whether the technology's environmental benefits of microplastic removal outweigh the burdens of operating the treatment system.
When Technology Meets Sustainability: Microplastic Removal from Industrial Wastewater, Including Impact Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment
Researchers assessed a novel pilot plant that removes microplastics from industrial wastewater using organosilane-based agglomeration followed by belt filtration, and conducted a life cycle assessment. The system achieved 98% MP removal by mass and 99.9987% by particle count while reducing chemical oxygen demand by 96%, with the life cycle assessment confirming the environmental feasibility of the approach.
Electrochemical oxidation of polyethylene microplastics: from efficient removal to sustainable valorization
Scientists developed a new method that can remove up to 98% of tiny plastic particles from water in just three hours using a special electrical process. Instead of just destroying the plastic waste, this technique turns it into useful chemicals like acids that can be used to make other products. This breakthrough could help clean up plastic pollution in our water while also creating a way to recycle plastic waste into valuable materials.
Recommendations for life-cycle assessment of recyclable plastics in a circular economy
This paper examines how life-cycle assessments of plastic recycling are often conducted inconsistently, leading to misleading conclusions about the environmental benefits of recycling. The authors recommend measuring impacts based on the amount of useful recycled product rather than waste processed, and expanding analysis beyond greenhouse gases to include plastic waste leaking into the environment. Better assessment methods could lead to more effective policies for reducing the plastic waste that ultimately becomes microplastic pollution.
Life Cycle Assessment of Selected Single-Use Plastic Products towards Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations in Sri Lanka
Researchers applied life cycle assessment to common single-use plastic products in Sri Lanka, quantifying their environmental impacts across production to disposal and providing evidence-based recommendations to guide national plastic pollution policy.
Strategies for efficient management of microplastics to achieve life cycle assessment and circular economy
This review examines strategies for managing microplastic waste through a circular economy and life cycle assessment (LCA) lens, arguing that current recycling practices and waste disposal methods are inadequate given the sheer volume of plastics entering ecosystems. The authors propose a conceptual framework integrating LCA principles into microplastic management to better quantify ecological risks and guide more sustainable plastic use policies.
An Examination of Microplastics: Environmental Impact, Sustainability, and Recyclability Innovation
This paper examined the environmental impact of microplastics, sustainability implications of current plastic use, and recycling options to address the plastic pollution crisis. It called for a transition toward circular economy approaches that reduce primary plastic production and increase recycled content.
Upcycling plastic waste into electrode materials for energy storage applications
Researchers reviewed approaches for upcycling plastic waste into electrode materials for energy storage applications, finding that discarded plastics including polyethylene, polypropylene, and PET can be converted through pyrolysis and chemical activation into carbon-based electrodes for supercapacitors and batteries, addressing both plastic pollution and energy storage challenges simultaneously.
Exploring the EU plastic value chain: A material flow analysis
Researchers conducted a material flow analysis of the EU27 plastic value chain, finding that only 19% of plastics were recycled in 2019, with total losses amounting to 4% of production and significant variation across sectors and polymer types.
Strategies for Electrochemical Recycling of Plastic Polyethylene Terephthalate‐Derived Ethylene Glycol Into High‐Value Chemicals
This paper reviews new methods for recycling PET plastic waste, the most common plastic in bottles and packaging, using electricity from renewable sources. By converting PET-derived chemicals into high-value products through electrocatalysis, this approach could help reduce both plastic pollution and microplastic contamination in the environment.
New Management Strategy Framework for Effectively Managing Microplastic in Circular System from Plastic Product Manufacturing to Waste Treatment Facility
Researchers proposed a new management strategy framework for controlling microplastic release throughout the lifecycle of plastic products, from manufacturing through end-of-life in circular economy systems, incorporating soil, atmospheric, groundwater, and river-based pollution pathways. The framework provides actionable guidance for producers, regulators, and waste managers to systematically reduce microplastic entry into land and marine environments.
Single-Step Electrochemical Upcycling of PET: Waste to Value-Added Chemicals, Oral Presentation
Researchers developed a single-step electrochemical method to upcycle PET plastic waste into value-added chemicals and organic materials, targeting the over 70% of plastic that ends up in landfills or oceans where it breaks down into microplastics.
Mechanical recycling of plastic waste as a point source of microplastic pollution
Researchers found that mechanical recycling of plastic waste is a significant point source of microplastic pollution, releasing plastic fragments into wastewater during washing, shredding, and processing stages of the recycling chain.
Estimating fossil carbon contributions from chemicals and microplastics in Sweden's urban wastewater systems: A model-based approach
A modeling study estimated that fossil-derived carbon makes up roughly 12–17% of the total carbon flowing into Swedish municipal wastewater treatment plants, with microplastics accounting for about 13% of that fossil carbon fraction. This is relevant because wastewater treatment plants emit greenhouse gases, and IPCC guidelines now require accounting for fossil carbon separately from biogenic carbon in those emissions. The study provides a practical framework for other countries to estimate plastic-derived fossil carbon contributions to wastewater emissions inventories.