Analysis of the Recovery Process of the Calcine Contained in Damaged Windshields under the Principles of Circular Economy

The Circular Economy (CE) plays a fundamental role in the vigor of sustainability. Nowadays, institutions and governments have been looking for alternatives to achieve their objectives of reducing the generation and disposal of pollutants. In this work, it is analyzed the process of recovering calcine by a delamination process of damaged windshields in a recycling company. Three tools focused on the EC are used in this study: The Material Circularity Indicator (MCI), the Circular Economy Toolkit (CET) and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Currently, the company has a delamination process for recovering calcine which consist of mechanically separating the glass from a polymeric material called polyvinyl butyral (PVB). By applying the principles of the CE, it was obtained a high linear value for the calcine recovery and the PVB disposal because by-products are not currently recycled or reused; however, using the principle of industrial symbiosis the PVB may be reused in other industries, so the circularity index would be enhanced. Based on the Life Cycle Analysis, the current process for delamination of windshields has some environmental impacts, which could be solved by retrofitting the process and installing a photovoltaic system. In addition, the inversion would be recovered in 3 years.