Greene - Sustainable plastics: environmental assessments of biobased, biodegradable, and recycled plastics

Joseph P. Greene

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Courtesy of the author

Copyright 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Greene, Joseph P., 1961
Sustainable plastics : environmental assessments of biobased, biodegradable, and recycled
plastics / Joseph P. Greene.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-10481-1 (hardback)
1. Biodegradable plastics. 2. PlasticsRecycling. 3. PlasticsEnvironmental aspects.
4. Green chemistry. I. Title.
TP1180.B55G7435 2014
668.4dc23

2013051271

Plastics are one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century. Plastics enable products to be made that meet the needs of the public for plastic applications. Plastics make life easier for all of us. We can purchase food, drink, and consumables in safe, lightweight, and clean containers and packaging made from plastic. We can drive around or be transported in a vehicle that is comfortable, pleasing to the eye, and safe thanks in part to plastics. We can communicate with small electronic devices that keep us connected with one another and also help entertain us with real and fantasy worlds.

Plastics are lightweight and easily thrown away with other heavier debris. Plastics can be recycled and reused many times. However, the lightweight benefits of plastics can cause them to be airborne and difficult for waste management companies to collect and dispose them off in landfills or other disposal environments. The lightweight plastics can occupy large volumes of landfills and can be a litter problem for land and sea. Floating plastics debris might be the final legacy of our disposal-society generation. Through education and training we can help our younger people become the sustainable generation. We can educate them in the ways of producing products and services with reduced environmental impacts. Products and services can be created with minimal waste, greenhouse gases, and pollution. This book can help provide information on creating lightweight and sustainable plastic products for our sustainable world.

Bioplastics today can be made from corn, soy, sugarcane, potato, or other renewable material source. Petroleum plastics can also be sustainable if they are made from renewable or recycled material sources. The manufacturing process also can also be sustainable. Plastics have the opportunity to define sustainable materials that are made from renewable or recycled materials sources, made with lower energy, produce less pollution, and have a low carbon footprint. Sustainable plastic materials also are recycled or composted at the end of the product service life. This book will define sustainability and sustainable materials and provide practical examples of sustainable plastics and provide examples of life cycle assessments (LCA) for these materials. This book can be used for education and training for plastics professionals and students who are interested in creating sustainable products.

Sustainable plastics can include biobased, biodegradable, and recycled plastics. LCAs will be used to provide a scientific explanation of sustainable plastics. The content of the book includes definitions of sustainability and sustainable materials, evaluations of the environmental concerns for industry, definitions of life cycle assessments, explanations of biobased and recycled plastics, and examples of sustainable plastics as defined by LCAs.

The author would like to thank Ms. Vanessa Vaquera for providing the artwork in the book.

The author would like to dedicate this book to Dr. James O. Wilkes, Chemical Engineering Department, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

American Chemistry Council

Alpha hydroxyl acid

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (ASTM D6686)

American Society for Testing Materials

(2-Hydroxyethyl)terephthalate

Biochemical oxygen demand (ISO 14851)

Chlorofluorocarbon

Carbon dioxide equivalent

German Organization for Standardization

Department of Energy

End-of-life

Environmental Protection Agency

Greenhouse gas

General purpose polystyrene

Greene sustainability index

Global warming potential

High density ethylene

High impact polystyrene

Liquid Scintillation Counting (ASTM D6686)

Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (ASTM D6686)

Integrated stretch blow molding

Life cycle assessment

Life cycle inventory

Low density polyethylene

Mono-ethylene glycol

Materials recovery facility

Municipal solid waste

Oriented polystyrene sheet

Polyethylene terephthalate

Poly glycolic acid

Poly-hydroxy-alkanoate

Poly-hydroxy-butyrate

Poly-hydroxy-valerate

Poly lactic acid

Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential

Polypropylene

Polystyrene

Poly vinyl chloride

Refused derived fuel

United States Department of Agriculture