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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Applications of recycled plastics and life cycle assessment
ClearRecommendations 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.
A critical review on plastic waste life cycle assessment and management: Challenges, research gaps, and future perspectives
This review examines the full environmental impact of plastics from production through disposal, noting that life cycle assessments often produce unexpected results when comparing bio-based and petroleum-based plastics. A major gap exists because microplastic pollution is not yet factored into these environmental assessments, despite growing evidence of its ecological harm.
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.
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.
Assessing 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.
A comprehensive critical review of Life Cycle Assessment applied to thermoplastic polymers for mechanical and electronic engineering
This review provides the first critical analysis of how life cycle assessment methodology has been applied to technical thermoplastic polymers used in mechanical and electronic engineering. Researchers identified gaps in existing studies and highlighted the formation of microplastics during production, use, and disposal as a critical but often overlooked environmental concern. The study offers practical recommendations for improving future environmental assessments of engineering plastics.
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.
System innovation and life cycle thinking in packaging value chain: the circularity of plastics.
This paper examines the role of circular economy principles in reducing plastic packaging waste, noting that despite existing recycling systems, plastics remain pervasive environmental contaminants. The authors argue that redesigning packaging systems for recyclability and reducing over-packaging are essential steps to address microplastic pollution at its source.
Plastic and the Environment
This chapter reviews the environmental challenges posed by plastic waste, covering the history and properties of plastics, the problems of plastic pollution, and the complexities of plastic recycling including hazardous substance propagation in electronics recycling streams.
Role of Plastics in Modern Life: Benefits, Risks and Environmental Consequences
This review examines the dual role of plastics in modern society — their economic and practical benefits alongside growing environmental and health concerns — calling for a balanced approach to plastic use and waste management.
Environmental Impact of Plastic Waste: Strategies for Sustainable Management
This systematic review summarizes the environmental and health impacts of plastic waste and evaluates strategies for sustainable management. It highlights that plastic pollution threatens ecosystems and human health through microplastic contamination, and examines approaches like recycling, biodegradable alternatives, and policy interventions to reduce exposure.
Plastics in the Circular Economy
This book examines the role of plastics in the circular economy, reviewing how the current linear plastics economy generates environmental problems including microplastic pollution from fossil oil use and unmanaged plastic waste. The authors assess circular economy strategies including recycling, biodegradable alternatives, and design for disassembly as pathways to maintain the benefits of plastics while reducing their environmental footprint.
Role of Plastics in Modern Life: Benefits, Risks and Environmental Consequences
This review examines the dual role of plastics in modern society — their economic benefits alongside environmental and public health risks — and surveys strategies for more sustainable plastic production and disposal.
Polymers and Microplastics: Implications on Our Environment and Sustainability
This review discusses the environmental implications of polymers and microplastics, covering their properties, production trends, degradation pathways, and ecological impacts. It highlights the tension between the industrial utility of plastics and their growing threat to environmental and human health.
Strategies and technologies for sustainable plastic waste treatment and recycling
This review covers current and emerging methods for recycling and treating plastic waste to reduce environmental pollution. The authors emphasize that improperly managed plastics break down into microplastics that contaminate ecosystems, and they evaluate strategies including chemical recycling, biodegradation, and energy recovery as more sustainable alternatives to landfilling.
Integrated Recycling and The Impact of Plastic Waste from Industry and Agriculture on The Environment
This review examined the environmental impacts of plastic waste from industrial and agricultural sources and assessed integrated recycling strategies for reducing those impacts. The paper discussed how plastic waste prevention, collection, and recycling can minimize pollution and climate contributions from the growing global plastic waste stream.
E-plastic Waste: A Review of Waste Stream Management Challenges and Opportunities for Environmental Sustainability
Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review focuses on electronic plastic waste (e-plastics) as a distinct and neglected waste stream, examining management challenges and recycling opportunities without addressing environmental microplastic contamination.
Microplastics as an Emerging Potential Threat: Toxicity, Life Cycle Assessment, and Management
This review covers the full life cycle of microplastics, from how they enter the environment to their toxic effects on living organisms. Microplastics accumulate in aquatic and land ecosystems, where they can harm organisms by causing oxidative stress, disrupting hormones, and damaging organs. The authors emphasize that with global plastic production still rising, better waste management and recycling methods are urgently needed to reduce human and environmental exposure.
Recycling and Management of Microplastic Waste
This review examines recycling and management strategies for plastic waste, describing the technical and economic challenges of reducing plastic pollution and the remediation approaches that have been attempted to address microplastic accumulation in the environment.
Degradation and Recycling of Polymer Materials
This review synthesizes research on the degradation and recycling of polymer materials, covering microplastic formation, recycling strategies, and plastic degradation mechanisms as responses to the significant environmental damage caused by discarded plastics in ocean and other ecosystems.
Recycling and Reusing Strategies to Prevent Microplastic Generation: a Review
This review examines recycling and reusing strategies for plastic materials as a means of preventing microplastic generation, grounding the analysis in circular economy principles emphasizing resource efficiency through repair, reuse, and recycling. The authors evaluate current methodologies and propose strategies to reduce plastic waste degradation into microplastics, linking waste management practices to pollution prevention outcomes.
Expanding plastics recycling technologies: chemical aspects, technology status and challenges
This review examined the full life cycle of plastics and evaluated options for managing plastic waste, with a focus on chemical recycling technologies. The study suggests that overcoming barriers to industrial chemical recycling could open new opportunities for reducing plastic pollution.
Plastic Pollution & Solution
This review examines plastic waste management strategies across the plastic lifecycle, noting that landfilling remains the dominant approach despite its environmental and health drawbacks. It concludes that recycling and energy recovery offer better outcomes than landfilling, which is relevant to microplastics because improper disposal accelerates the fragmentation of plastics into smaller particles that enter ecosystems.
Future aspects of micro-plastics and their management
This review covers the main types of plastic pollution and their fragmentation into microplastics that accumulate in marine environments. The authors argue that recycling, reuse, and community-level prevention strategies are essential for reducing plastic waste reaching the ocean.