Environmental impact analysis of polyethylene terephthalate plastic recycling process using life-cycle assessment

Abstract

Indonesia faces challenging plastic waste management for post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as most of the waste ended up being openly burned and landfilled. Despite the Indonesian government has doubled the recycling capacity, the understanding towards current recycling practice and its environmental impacts remains limited. This study employs life cycle assessment to identify and measure the amount of materials and energy used and quantify all the released substances impacting the environment from the production of recycled PET in a company. The assessment use resource inventory analysis for raw materials, energy, and waste production across nineteen processes and exhibits the result in four indicators: global warming, acidification, eutrophication, and smog formation. Comparing with the best practice performance, the recycling company's result presents two main factors contributing to the extensive environmental impact from current PET production that requires improvement to lower its footprints to the nature.