Department of Accounting, Corporate Finance and Taxation, Ghent University, Belgium; Circular Plastics, Department of Circular Chemical Engineering (CCE), Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Laboratory for Circular Process Engineering (LCPE), Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Belgium; Circular Plastics, Department of Circular Chemical Engineering (CCE), Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Waste Manag. 2024 Dec 1;189:300-313. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.08.017. Epub 2024 Sep 2.
The plastic industry needs to match the recycling goals set by the EU. Next to technological hurdles, the cost of plastics mechanical recycling is an important modality in this transition. This paper reveals how business economic cost calculation can expose significant pitfalls in the recycling process, by unravelling limitations and boundary conditions, such as scale. By combining the business economic methodology with a Material Flow Analysis, this paper shows the influence of mass retention of products, the capacity of the processing lines, scaling of input capacity, and waste composition on the recycling process and associated costs. Two cases were investigated: (i) the Initial Sorting in a medium size Material Recovery Facility and (ii) an improved mechanical recycling process for flexibles - known as the Quality Recycling Process - consisting of Additional Sorting and Improved Recycling. Assessing the whole recycling chain gives a more holistic insight into the influences of choices and operating parameters on subsequent costs in other parts of the chain and results in a more accurate cost of recycled plastic products. This research concluded that the cost of Initial Sorting of flexibles is 110,08-122,53 EUR/t, while the cost of subsequent Additional Sorting and Improved Recycling ranges from 566,26 EUR/t for rPE Flex to 735,47 EUR/t for rPP Film, these insights can be used to determine a fair price for plastic products. For the Quality Recycling Process it was shown that rationalisation according to the identified pitfalls can reduce the cost per tonne of product by 15-26%.
塑料行业需要与欧盟的回收目标相匹配。除了技术障碍外，塑料机械回收的成本也是向这一目标过渡的重要模式。本文通过揭示规模等限制和边界条件，展示了商业经济成本计算如何暴露出回收过程中的重大缺陷。通过将商业经济方法与物质流分析相结合，本文展示了产品质量保留、加工线产能、输入产能规模和废物成分对回收过程和相关成本的影响。研究了两种情况：（i）中等规模材料回收设施中的初始分类，以及（ii）用于柔性塑料的改良机械回收工艺——称为“优质回收工艺”，由额外分类和改进回收组成。评估整个回收链可以更全面地了解选择和操作参数对链中其他部分后续成本的影响，并导致更准确的再生塑料产品成本。研究结果表明，柔性塑料的初始分类成本为 110.08-122.53 欧元/吨，而后续的额外分类和改进回收的成本范围为 rPE 柔性塑料的 566.26 欧元/吨至 rPP 薄膜的 735.47 欧元/吨，这些见解可用于确定塑料产品的公平价格。对于优质回收工艺，根据确定的缺陷进行合理化可以使每吨产品的成本降低 15-26%。
