Life Cycle Assessment and Energy Efficiency from Industry of Plastic Waste Recycling

¹ Master Program of Environmental Studies, School of Postgraduate Studies Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia
² Chemical Engineering Departement, Faculty of Engineering Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: vita.rosmiati@gmail.com

Abstract

The high use of plastic products is currently causing uncontrolled accumulation of plastic waste so that an effort is needed to minimize the negative impacts caused to the environment. One of the appropriate efforts in processing plastic waste is recycling to produce a variety of useful products. Each stage of the process in managing plastic waste recycling starts from collecting raw materials to producing a new product for consumers requiring energy that can be calculated and analyzed for their impact on the environment using the LCA method. From this study can be concluded that the plastic recycling industry as one of the efforts in reducing the generation of plastic waste to the environment consists of 3 (three) main stages, namely the stages of enumeration, the distribution of raw materials and the stages of production of plastic pellets. The environmental burden analyzed includes the production process of recycling plastic waste to produce an output in the form of 1 ton of plastic where the total GHG emissions generated are 2.36E + 03 kg CO² eq, with details of the potential contribution to global warming of 1.30E + 02 kg CO² eq at the stage enumeration, 3.52E + 01 kg CO² eq at the distribution stage and 2.15E + 00 kg CO² eq at the plastic pellets production stage. The efficiency of plastic seed products in this study showed a good result, where the NEV and NER values of the recycled plastic pellets products were 39664.1 MJ and 2.11 MJ.