| Abstract [eng] |
European Green Deal by European Union (EU) provides goals for further waste utilization. Ratified directives oblige every member of EU to reuse or recycle 60% of all municipal waste by 2030 and also to recycle no less than 70% off all packaging waste. Both of these directives include plastic waste. The amount of plastic waste is increasing every year, whereas industry of plastic recycling is growing yearly as well, but not at the same pace as the accumulated amount of waste. It is significant not only to recycle the appointed amounts of waste but also to accomplish it while making as little environment impact as possible. The process of plastic waste processing (recycling) requires high volume of energy. Energy production is one of the main reasons causing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Therefore, energy inefficiency indirectly increases GHG emissions. Between 2021 and 2030 Lithuania is committed to reduce GHGs by 40% comparing to the year of 1990. Reducing energy intensity is stipulated in the National Energy Independence Strategy, which obliges to minimize energy intensity until 2030 by 1.5 times comparing to the consumption in 2017. The aim of this research is to increase the efficiency of energy consumption in the plastic waste recycling by optimizing processing processes and, thus, minimizing the impact on the climate changes. Although the importance of the plastic processing sector in contributing to the implementation of the EU goals is obvious, separate studies examining the possibilities of reducing the impact of plastic processing haven’t been carried out in Lithuania in the last five years. The object selected for the experiment is one of the largest plastic processing companies in the EU - AB Plasta, which annually recycles over 35 thousand tons of plastic waste, and uses secondary raw material for production. In the work are made analysis of plastic waste management in Lithuania. Identified problematic – insufficient sorting of plastic waste in centralized mechanical treatment facilities. During the analysis of scientific and practical literature, reviewed main technological processes of plastic recycling, their impact on the environment. Methods used to determine the amount of GHG (CO2e) are discussed. In the company, AB Plasta was made energy and environmental audit in LDPE waste recycling determined. Calculate the intensity of energy use, CO2e emission sources (system boundaries: from LDPE waste transportation to secondary raw material production). In order to reduce energy intensity and the impact on climate change due to GHGs. In work presented 3 industrial ecology alternatives. An analysis of their feasibility has been carried out: technical assessment, including testing, environmental and economic assessment. Applied industrial ecology methods: dematerialization (process optimization/integration), industrial symbiosis. Successful integration of all environmental suggestions provided in this work, would enable Plasta to reduce electricity consumption up to 17 475 MWh per year, energy intensity – by 33 % – 1.32 MWh per tonne of granulate produced. An overall amount of GHGs would be minimized by ~34 % – 7 672 t CO2e per year or 0.28 t CO2e per tonne of granulate produced. Then the GHG emitted during the production of 1 t of plastic granulate would be 0.543 t CO2e / t. Successful implementation of these projects would be a significant move forward in order to achieve the environmental goals of Lithuania, such as reduction of energy intensity and GHGs, as well as reaching the required norm of waste recycling. The projects, analysed in this work, could be easily applied to other plastic processing Lithuanian enterprises, which could also contribute to reducing environmental impact and achieving the EU’s goals. |
