TY - JOUR

T1 - Recovery of plastic packaging from mixed municipal solid waste. A case study from Austria

AU - Blasenbauer, Dominik

AU - Lipp, Anna-Maria

AU - Fellner, Johann

AU - Tischberger-Aldrian, Alexia

AU - Stipanovic, Hana

AU - Lederer, Jakob

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)

PY - 2024/5/15

Y1 - 2024/5/15

N2 - Austria must recycle more packaging materials. Especially for plastic packaging waste, significant increases are necessary to reach the EU recycling targets for 2025 and 2030. In addition to improving separate collection and introducing a deposit system for specific fractions, the share of plastic packaging in mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) could be utilized.In Austria, about 1.8 million tonnes of mixed MSW are generated. This includes about 110,000 t/a of plastic packaging waste. Most of the mixed MSW (94 %) is sent directly or via residues from pre-treatment, such as mechanical–biological treatment or waste sorting, to waste incineration. While materials such as glass and metals can also be recovered from the bottom ash, combustible materials such as plastics must be recovered before incineration.This work aims to evaluate the recovery potential of plastic packaging waste in mixed MSW with automated waste sorting. For this purpose, two of the largest Austrian waste sorting plants, with a total annual throughput of about 280,000 t/a, were investigated. The investigation included regular sampling of selected output streams and sorting analysis.The results show that the theoretical recovery potential of plastic packaging from these two plants is 6,500 t/a on average. An extrapolation to Austria results in a potential of about 83,000 t/a. If losses due to further treatment, such as sorting and recycling, are considered, about 30,000 t/a of recyclate could be returned to plastic production. This would correspond to an increase in plastic packaging recycling rate from 25 % to 35 %.

AB - Austria must recycle more packaging materials. Especially for plastic packaging waste, significant increases are necessary to reach the EU recycling targets for 2025 and 2030. In addition to improving separate collection and introducing a deposit system for specific fractions, the share of plastic packaging in mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) could be utilized.In Austria, about 1.8 million tonnes of mixed MSW are generated. This includes about 110,000 t/a of plastic packaging waste. Most of the mixed MSW (94 %) is sent directly or via residues from pre-treatment, such as mechanical–biological treatment or waste sorting, to waste incineration. While materials such as glass and metals can also be recovered from the bottom ash, combustible materials such as plastics must be recovered before incineration.This work aims to evaluate the recovery potential of plastic packaging waste in mixed MSW with automated waste sorting. For this purpose, two of the largest Austrian waste sorting plants, with a total annual throughput of about 280,000 t/a, were investigated. The investigation included regular sampling of selected output streams and sorting analysis.The results show that the theoretical recovery potential of plastic packaging from these two plants is 6,500 t/a on average. An extrapolation to Austria results in a potential of about 83,000 t/a. If losses due to further treatment, such as sorting and recycling, are considered, about 30,000 t/a of recyclate could be returned to plastic production. This would correspond to an increase in plastic packaging recycling rate from 25 % to 35 %.

KW - Municipal solid waste

KW - Plastic packaging waste

KW - Recycling

KW - Circular Economy

KW - Material revovery facility

KW - Automated waste sorting

KW - Automated waste sorting

KW - Circular economy

KW - Material recovery facility

KW - Municipal solid waste

KW - Plastic packaging waste

KW - Recycling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188834493&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://pureadmin.unileoben.ac.at/portal/en/publications/recovery-of-plastic-packaging-from-mixed-municipal-solid-waste-a-case-study-from-austria(542276b9-7542-4c82-9367-6c919b7cdc92).html

U2 - 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.02.040

DO - 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.02.040

M3 - Article

VL - 180.2024

SP - 9

EP - 22

JO - Waste management

JF - Waste management

SN - 0956-053X

IS - 15 May

ER -