This artic
le dea
ls with the waste
manage
ment of post-consu
mer p
lastics in Ger
many and its potentia
l to save fossi
l fue
ls and reduce CO
2 e
missions. Since
most of the experience avai
lab
le is for packaging the paper first gives an out
line of the
legis
lative background and the
materia
l f
lows for this sector. The recyc
ling and recovery processes for p
lastics waste fro
m a
ll sectors are then assessed in ter
ms of their potentia
l contribution to energy saving and CO
2 abatement. Practica
lly a
ll the options studied show better perfor
mance regarding these two aspects than waste treat
ment in an average incinerator (which has been chosen as the reference case). High eco
logica
l benefits can be achieved by
mechanica
l recyc
ling if virgin po
ly
mers are substituted. The cost effectiveness of reducing energy use and CO
2 e
missions is deter
mined for a nu
mber of techno
logies. There is
large scope to reduce the costs, with an esti
mated overa
ll saving potentia
l of 50 % within one to two decades. The paper then presents scenario projections which are based on the assu
mption that the tota
l p
lastics waste in Ger
many in 1995 is treated in processes which wi
ll be avai
lab
le by 2005; considerab
le savings can be
made by
moving away fro
m the business-as-usua
l path to high
ly efficient waste incinerators (advanced waste-to-energy faci
lities). Under these conditions the distribution of p
lastics waste a
mong
mechanica
l recyc
ling and feedstock recyc
ling has a co
mparative
ly s
ma
ll i
mpact on the overa
ll resu
lts. The
maxi
mu
m savings a
mount to 74PJ of energy, i.e. 9 % of the che
mica
l sector's energy de
mand in 1995 and 7.0Mt CO
2, representing 13 % of the sector's e
missions and 0.8 % of Ger
many's tota
l CO
2 e
missions. This shows that p
lastics waste
manage
ment offers so
me scope for reducing environ
menta
l burdens. The assess
ment does not support a genera
l reco
mmendation of energy recovery,
main
ly due to the
large difference between the Ger
man average and the best avai
lab
le waste-to-energy faci
lities.
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