SPE Library

An eco-efficiency study was conducted to compare the environmental impacts and total costs of three options for diversion of food waste in a food service setting; 1) disposal in a compostable liner made from Ecoflex®, 2) disposal in a non-compostable liner made from polyethylene and 3) disposal without the use of a liner. The interest and growth of food waste collection and diversion away from landfills to alternative disposal sites is well known to today’s waste managers. Organics collection is at an all time high, and pre and post consumer food waste is a vital part of that stream, reported as 31 million tons from the 2006 EPA report on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). With so much food waste to collect and divert in the US, infrastructure questions abound. Along with each piece of the infrastructure puzzle, more questions arise concerning the benefit of organics diversion versus the cost of collection and the potential harmful environmental impacts of hauling, sorting and composting of organics. The BASF Eco-Efficiency Analysis (EEA) tool is a sophisticated life cycle assessment tool that considers all of the environmental impacts of the production, use and disposal of a product. The EEA also considers all cost associated with the product use, which is not something typically included in a life cycle assessment. Furthermore, the BASF EEA produces a portfolio that normalizes potential solutions into a grid to allow for comparison on a performance basis. Thus, many potential solutions to a problem can be compared, quickly and accurately, to determine the most environmentally and economically attractive choice.

Carbon—specifically, carbon dioxide (CO2)—has gone mainstream and it hasn’t exactly landed in the limelight. Everyone from consumers to retailers to investors is now intently focused on CO2, or more accurately, the elimination of it. A groundswell of media attention, activist groups, new legislation, changing market dynamics, and a link—real or perceived—to global warming have made carbon public enemy number one. Yet, it remains one of the largest industrial manufacturing by-products emitted into the atmosphere by volume. Reducing levels of CO2 output is a complicated process that takes time—the one thing nearly everyone is short on. But as the adage goes: “knowledge is power.” And in a manufacturing industry that is scrambling to “green-ify” itself that knowledge comes in the form of understanding carbon footprints—and putting the results to work. The best way to generate a carbon footprint is through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which systematically assesses the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity over the whole of its lifecycle from the extraction and transportation of raw materials through to manufacture, packaging, transport, distribution and finally, disposal. A carbon footprint, which is a component and subset of the more detailed and comprehensive LCA, is a complete analysis of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions created by a particular product or service. Carbon footprinting measures the global warming potential (GWP) of products or services. A carbon footprint should be considered by any manufacturer that is serious about truly understanding and reducing its environmental impact and improving public perception. This presentation will address in detail how carbon footprints can be applied to complex manufacturing systems. Such application presents significant challenges, including: • Parameters and scope – Define the functional unit and decide what exactly can be measured and how. This preparatory phase looks at the product systems and system boundaries as well as what assumptions are being made. It also accounts for what should be excluded. • Data collection and quality – Consideration for how data will be collected and how emissions will be quantified must be considered. Also, how reliable is the data? • Impact Assessment – This includes how the data should be benchmarked and presented so it is meaningful to multiple audiences, internal and external. • Drawing sound and objective conclusions – Finally, carbon footprints are only useful if the data is presented in a meaningful and actionable way. These challenges and appropriate avenues to success will be discussed for the benefit of environmental compliance officers, plant managers and anyone involved in the optimization of production processes. This presentation will highlight in a general sense several actual case studies of carbon footprints conducted for major consumer and industrial companies including: Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Novartis and Pepsi and Coca-Cola, among others. The presentation will cover the results in more detail of several carbon footprint exercises including:
A comparison of traditional HDPE plastic shopping bags to new biopolymer bags;
A study comparing the carbon footprint of bottled water to that of tap water;
A case study that looked at the relative carbon footprints of various types of plastic packaging for flocculants. This presentation will discuss how conducting your carbon footprint will quickly identify the “80/20” rule for global warming potential, and how it can subsequently be applied to reduce your environmental impact in an efficient and economical way. In most carbon footprint scenarios, manufacturers will discover that the greatest component of emissions generated comes from two sources, the primary being electrical consumption and the other being transportation of goods. Finally, the presentation will offer information for participants not only on how to conduct a carbon footprint exercise for a particular product, but how to interpret and present the results. This powerful information will allow manufacturers to understand on a micro and macro level the impact that their operations have on the environment— thus their business—and what, if any, action should be taken.

The United States produces 100 billion bottles per year. If the bottles are not returned to the original high value item, another 100 billion will be produced each of the following years, putting the bottles into various waste streams. Each bottle is high value because it represents lightweight packaging, energy input and consumer confidence in the safety of the product. Thus the question, “can we reuse the asset and is it worthwhile doing so, based on sustainability guidelines”? The presentation provides specifics on equipment that is both capital and operationally effective. It addresses Rpet requiring only 10% of the energy of Virgin PET with a reduction of 30% in CO2 emissions. While satisfying the previous, it can be designed to meet FDA guidelines for contaminate levels along with the requirements of emissions for EPA. We can recapture the asset value and recycling of PET bottles can be accomplished at high capacity with reduced overall costs and also be environmentally friendly.

For some time, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, and even private citizens have been emphasizing the protection of the environment. However, it is notable that often there is substantial disagreement between advocates in all of these groups about how to best accomplish this worthy goal. Frequently, these differences of opinion occur because the parties are not working from the same set of facts or even comparable concepts. This paper seeks to identify a unified basis for understanding and comparing the critical economic and scientific details of such ideals as sustainability, renewable materials, and alternative energy sources as applied within the plastics industry.

We hear a lot these days about plastic bags – but what’s wrong with plastic? Plastic is very strong - it’s waterproof and its still very cheap. Without plastic it would be impossible to transport food safely and hygienically to millions of homes all over the world and to sell it at affordable prices. The problem is that if ordinary or recycled plastic gets out into the environment it will lie or float around for decades, and we have all heard of the massive patch of plastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean. Technologies have now become available which can produce plastic products such as shopping bags, garbage sacks, packaging etc. which are fit for purpose, but will harmlessly degrade at the end of their useful life. These fall into two broad categories, namely: 1. Oxo-biodegradable plastics, made from a by-product of oil-refining, which degrade in the environment by a process of oxidation initiated by an additive, and then biodegrade after their molecular weight has reduced to the point where naturallyoccurring micro-organisms can access the material. 2. Hydro-biodegradable plastics, made wholly or partly from crops, which biodegrade in a highly microbial environment, such as composting

In the age of heightened environmental awareness, many new concepts and materials have been developed and discussed in an effort to either reduce our carbon footprint or limit our use of fossil fuels for plastic materials. One material, often misunderstood, has had a positive impact on the environment for years. Both rigid and flexible compounds of Polyvinyl Chloride have been used in a myriad of applications ranging from outdoor furniture, to medical applications, to compliance with NSF standards for potable water, all while offering excellent recyclability characteristics as well as a smaller carbon foot print than many conventional commodity thermoplastics. This paper will provide a practical discussion of recycling flexible Vinyl and the potential uses of the recyclate. From sourcing to processing, all aspects of a vinyl recycling operation are covered, with a primary focus on the material characteristics of the recyclate, and the ability to tailor the recycled compound to a given set of physical properties. In addition, further discussions will include potential uses of the recyclate, as well as ideas for infrastructure to promote the use of post consumer PVC.