Circular packaging plastic usage at construction sites: A study to increase the circularity of packaging plastic at construction sites in Sweden
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Stemberger, Adam
Pothireddy, Vinod Sai
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
n 2017 there were 349 000 000 tonnes of plastics produced worldwide (Plastics Europe,
2022) and 2 411 000 tonnes of plastics were produced and imported in Sweden, with
the packaging industry being the single most user of plastic followed by the construction
sector (Almasai et al., 2019). Of the total waste sent to incineration almost half of the
waste was from packaging plastic (Almasai et al., 2019).
The aim of the project was to develop circular strategies that promote efficient plastic
packaging usage at construction sites. The first step was to identify the total quantity
and type of packaging plastic used and to quantify its presence in waste containers at
the construction sites by using Material Flow Analysis (MFA). From the results, it was
observed that Polyethylene (PE) was the major plastic type present at construction sites
and the combustible containers had the highest quantities of plastic. Due to unreliable
data, a worst case and a best case scenario were made with total recyclability of 5.8% and
40% respectively. An Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was performed with the results obtained
from MFA to create a baseline scenario that was used for formulating circular strategies.
A total of 25 circular strategies were developed from seven design principles adapted to
circular economy.
The suitable circular strategies were selected by a two step screening process which included
environmental impacts and relevant framework. From the results, it could be
observed that circular strategies with an emphasis on improving sorting and recycling,
lowers the environmental impacts more than other strategies i.e transportation strategies.
The circular strategy Less plastic types had the least amount of environmental impacts.
This was due to the increased recyclability to 90%, which was achieved through improved
sorting. This was accomplished by switching all hard plastic to the same type of Polypropylene
(PP). An additional recycling scenario of 50% was considered because achieving
a 90% recycling target might be difficult in the real world, given different working
conditions at different construction sites. The results showed that even reaching a 50%
recycling rate has significantly lesser impacts than the current scenario.
Since PE was the major plastic type observed at the construction sites, it could be easier
for suppliers to shift all hard plastic to PE instead of PP. Therefore the recycling scenarios
were tested with PE and the results showed that the environmental impacts were close to
PP.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Packaging Plastic, Construction site, Circular economy, MFA, LCA, Waste management