Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-22-2024

Department

Department of Chemical Engineering; Department of Chemistry; Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering; College of Business

Abstract

Many actions are underway at global, national, and local levels to increase plastics circularity. However, studies evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of such a transition are lacking at regional levels in the United States. In this work, the existing polyethylene terephthalate and polyolefin plastics supply chains in Michigan were compared to a potential future (‘NextCycle’) scenario that looks at increasing Michigan’s overall recycling rate to 45%. Material flow analysis data was combined with environmental and socio-economic metrics to evaluate the sustainability of these supply chains for the modeled scenarios. Overall, the NextCycle scenario for these supply chains achieved a net 14% and 34% savings of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy impacts, when compared with their respective baseline values. Additionally, the NextCycle scenario showed a net gain in employment and wages, however, it showed a net loss of revenue generation outside of Michigan due to the avoided use of virgin resins in Michigan.

Publisher's Statement

© 2024 Chaudhari, Sedaghatnia, Reck, Maguire, Johnson, Watkins, Handler, Hossain, Hartley, Thompson, Peralta, Apriesnig and Shonnard. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2024.1405427

Publication Title

Frontiers in Sustainability

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF

Download

Share

COinS