Sustainability Assessment

The project aims to support decision-making in the implementation of large-scale Plastics2Olefins installations in Europe. Both the environmental and economic life cycle impacts of the Plastics2Olefins technology will be quantified to demonstrate its economic and environmental performance relative to existing plastic waste management systems, including low temperature pyrolysis and incineration.

A further challenge within the project is to determine the replicability of full scale Plastics2Olefins technology in other geographical locations, particularly within Europe and the ASEAN region. The environmental, economic, and regulatory aspects are reviewed in the replicability study.

The replicability of the economic and environmental impacts of Plastics2Olefins study are also important to calculate due to the differences in, 1) background systems (both cost and environment), and 2) the specific qualities of the region, such as education level and population. For instance, population density in ASEAN countries tends to be higher than in Europe, so the effects of various emissions to human health may be more severe, which affects decision making. The energy production systems and the plastic waste itself may also have vastly different compositions, so the technologies that are environmentally and economically preferable in European context might not be in the ASEAN region, which highlights the importance of replicability study.