The management of plastic packaging waste needs to be optimized to improve recycling rates. In this article, fourteen categories of non-bottle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packages were mechanically recycled at laboratory bench scale; the generated data were assessed using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach to identify the categories most suited for the mechanical recycling process from social, technical and legislative viewpoints. Recycling yields varied between 75% and 92% across the 14 categories. The intrinsic viscosity (IV) values of the produced recycled PET (rPET) corresponded to molecular weights ranging from 28,000 to 35,000 g/mol. The MCDA recyclability assessment showed that 7 of the 14 categories (accounting for 72% of the sorted products by mass flow) are often composed of multiple, inseparable materials, resulting in the lowest-quality rPET. Furthermore, only 4 categories (approximately 28% of the categories) were found suitable for closed-loop mechanical recycling. The stakeholders involved in the PET packaging value chain could use these results to support decision-making and the development of a well-organized framework to valorize even the most complex types of plastic waste.
Santomasi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.