신재(Virgin)와 재생원료 PET병의 전과정평가 비교 분석 연구 (Life Cycle Assessment of Virgin PET Bottles and Recycled PET Bottles: A Comparative Study)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국폐기물자원순환학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국폐기물자원순환학회지 / 41권 / 6호 / 624 ~ 635페이지
· 저자명 : 김병환, 장용철, 이호원, 이청희, 송하균, 최경훈

초록

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영어초록

Plastic is widely used in packaging materials and products. Although plastics have numerous inherent advantages, such as non-biodegradability, corrosion resistance, and chemical safety, they also negatively impact the environment and ecosystems during production, consumption, and disposal stages. In this study, the potential environmental impacts of PET bottles with virgin materials and a recycled content (r-PET) were assessed using a life cycle assessment (LCA) with scenario analysis (for Scenarios 1, 2, and 3). A cradle-to-gate (i.e., raw-material-to-production) system boundary was used, and the functional unit was set to 1 ton of PET bottles. For r-PET, data were collected through field site visits and surveys of r-PET chip recycling companies, while the ecoinvent database was used for fossil-based PET and blow molding. An impact assessment characterization revealed that, for Scenario 1 (100% virgin PET chips), 12 out of 15 impact categories had greater environmental impacts than those of r-PET chips. There were no significant differences among the three impact categories in Scenario 1, while the environmental impact of Scenario 3 (100% recycled PET) was relatively large. In addition, Scenario 1 had higher environmental impacts for four damage categories that were evaluated at an endpoint level.
The resource damage category showed the most impact, which differed largely from that of Scenario 3. During r-PET production, electricity contributed the most in nine categories, while PET waste contributed the most in five categories.
In the ozone layer depletion category, a defoaming agent contributed the most. Based on the results of a local sensitivity analysis, there were no significant factors exceeding 10%. This study used scenario analysis to quantitatively evaluate the potential environmental impacts of r-PET bottles and virgin PET bottles. It found that, compared to virgin PET bottles, r-PET bottles could reduce more environmental impacts. The results of this study can be used as a data reference for improving PET plastic recycling policies. However, further studies are needed to obtain more detailed data from field surveys to reflect the actual conditions of r-PET bottles as well as to reduce the uncertainty and variability of LCA results.

참고자료

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