Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) Packaging Management Strategies in the EU

Plastics are a challenge
for the circular economy due to their
overall low recycling rate and high dependency on primary resources.
This study analyzes the EU demand for poly­(ethylene terephthalate)
(PET) packaging from 2020 to 2030 and quantifies the potential environmental
and societal savings by changing the waste management and consumption
patterns compared with business-as-usual practices. The results of
the life-cycle assessment and life-cycle costing show that a maximum
of 38 Mt of CO2-eq and 34 kt of PM2.5-eq could
be saved with a more efficient waste management system and a robust
secondary material market while also avoiding 8.3 billion EUR2019 in societal costs (cumulative 2020–2030). However,
limiting annual PET consumption growth appears to have a similar profound
effect on improving the efficiency of waste management systems: 35
Mt of CO2-eq, 31 kt of PM2.5-eq, and 25 billion
MEUR2019 societal costs could be saved, simply by keeping
EU consumption of PET constant.