Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain.
Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jun 15;721:137744. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137744. Epub 2020 Mar 5.
Food and beverage packaging represent a relevant fraction of municipal solid waste, and its adequate management is critical. Selective waste collection by an authorized organization according to an Extended Producer Responsibility System (EPRS) is the current option implemented in Spain for packaging. Other European countries have selected an alternative or a complement: a Deposit-Refund System (DRS) for certain type of beverage packaging. The selection of an EPRS or a DRS is a complex task and this work developed a universal methodology for the evaluation of optimal waste packaging management systems, focused on food and beverage. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied to compare the current EPRS vs the implementation of a new system, with the coexistence of a DRS and a reduced EPRS. Although the environmental savings of the new system are superior to its impacts, even if the DRS would reach a value of 90% for the package return index, the current EPRS obtains significantly better environmental results. All impact categories are favorable to the current EPRS, except ADP, where the potentially higher DRS recycling rate is manifested. The impact associated to the flow of specific DRS packages in the new system is clearly higher than that linked to the flow of DRS excluded packages and it is even higher that the impact of the total joint flow in the current EPRS for all categories except ADP. The fundamental cause of this high impact is the backhauling stage to transport the recovered packages to the counting plants without compacting. A sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the preference of the current EPRS over the combination of a DRS and a reduced EPRS. The developed approach supposes a methodological advance that can be extended to previously realized studies about the implementation of waste management systems in other contexts.
食品和饮料包装是城市固体废物的一个重要组成部分，因此对其进行妥善管理至关重要。目前，西班牙根据扩大生产者责任制度（EPRS），由授权组织对包装进行选择性废物收集。其他欧洲国家则选择了替代或补充方案：对某些类型的饮料包装采用押金退款制度（DRS）。选择 EPRS 或 DRS 是一项复杂的任务，本研究开发了一种通用方法，用于评估针对食品和饮料的最佳废物包装管理系统。应用生命周期评估（LCA）方法对现行 EPRS 与实施新系统进行比较，新系统中同时存在 DRS 和简化后的 EPRS。尽管新系统的环境效益优于其影响，但即使 DRS 的包装回收指数达到 90%，现行 EPRS 仍能获得更好的环境效益。除了 ADP 外，所有影响类别都对现行 EPRS 有利，而在 ADP 中，DRS 更高的潜在回收利用率则表现得更为明显。新系统中特定 DRS 包装的流动所产生的影响明显高于排除 DRS 包装的流动所产生的影响，甚至高于现行 EPRS 中所有类别（ADP 除外）的总联合流动的影响。造成这种高影响的根本原因是回程阶段，需要将回收的包装未经压缩就运送到计数厂。敏感性分析证实了现行 EPRS 优于 DRS 和简化后的 EPRS 组合的偏好具有稳健性。所开发的方法代表了一种方法上的进步，可以扩展到以前在其他背景下实施废物管理系统的研究。
