Mhaddolkar Namrata, Astrup Thomas Fruergaard, Tischberger-Aldrian Alexia, Pomberger Roland, Vollprecht Daniel
Chair of Waste Processing Technology and Waste Management (AVAW), Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL), Leoben, Austria.
DTU SUSTAIN, Department of Environmental Engineering, Danish Technical University (DTU), Lyngby, Denmark.
Waste Manag Res. 2025 Jun;43(6):911-934. doi: 10.1177/0734242X241279902. Epub 2024 Sep 30.
Biodegradable plastics have certain challenges in a waste management perspective. The existing literature reviews fail to provide a consolidated overview of different process steps of biodegradable plastic waste management and to discuss the support provided by the existing legislation for the same. The present review provides a holistic overview of these process steps and a comprehensive relative summary of 13 existing European Union (EU) laws related to waste management and circular economy, and national legislations plus source separation guidelines of 13 countries, to ensure the optimal use of resources in the future. Following were the major findings: (i) numerous types and low volumes of biodegradable plastics pose a challenge to developing cost-effective waste management infrastructure; (ii) biodegradable plastics are promoted as food-waste collection aids, but consumers are often confused about their proper disposal and are prone to greenwashing from manufacturers; (iii) industry-level studies demonstrating mechanical recycling on a full scale are unavailable; (iv) the existing EU legislation dealt with general topics related to biodegradable plastics; however, only the new proposal on plastic packaging waste and the EU policy framework for bioplastics clearly mentioned their disposal and (v) clear disparities were observed between disposal methods suggested by national legislation and available source separation guidelines. Thus, to appropriately manage biodegradable plastic waste, it is necessary to develop waste processing and material utilization infrastructure as well as create consumer awareness. In the end, recommendations were provided for improved biodegradable plastic waste management from the perspective of systemic challenges identified from the literature review.
从废物管理的角度来看，可生物降解塑料存在一定挑战。现有文献综述未能对可生物降解塑料废物管理的不同工艺步骤提供综合概述，也未讨论现有立法对其提供的支持。本综述对这些工艺步骤进行了全面概述，并对13项与废物管理和循环经济相关的现有欧盟法律、国家立法以及13个国家的源头分类指南进行了全面的相关总结，以确保未来资源的优化利用。主要发现如下：（i）多种类型且产量较低的可生物降解塑料对开发具有成本效益的废物管理基础设施构成挑战；（ii）可生物降解塑料被推广为食品废物收集辅助工具，但消费者往往对其正确处置感到困惑，并且容易受到制造商的绿色误导；（iii）缺乏展示大规模机械回收的行业层面研究；（iv）现有欧盟立法涉及与可生物降解塑料相关的一般主题；然而，只有关于塑料包装废物的新提案和欧盟生物塑料政策框架明确提到了它们的处置；（v）国家立法建议的处置方法与可用的源头分类指南之间存在明显差异。因此，为了妥善管理可生物降解塑料废物，有必要发展废物处理和材料利用基础设施，并提高消费者意识。最后，根据文献综述中确定的系统性挑战，对改进可生物降解塑料废物管理提出了建议。
