Resource Efficiency in Plastics Processing
The fourth in a series of Worksheets by Jonathan Churchman-Davies and Dr. Robin Kent for Envirowise on Resource Efficiency in the Plastics Industry.
UK Government Environment and Energy Helpline 0800 585 794
In the 5-10 year horizon the key task will be minimising the outputs at the end of the products life. Disposal is becoming increasingly expensive for waste created at any stage of manufacture and this is particularly true for the end-of-life stage. The current trend in legislation, e.g. WEEE (for electronic equipment) and EOLV (for cars) is to both increase the cost of disposal and to allocate a large part of it to the original producer. The trend for the future is to make the producer responsible for end-of-life costs.
The issue is not simply one of resource depletion, it is also due shortages of destinations for the outputs. The drive for reductions in CO2 emissions is essentially a ‘destination shortage’ where the atmosphere cannot accept more CO2 without being degraded. This lack of external destinations is being internalised to the producer companies through legislation and taxation, e.g. landfill taxes, CO2 taxes and effluent taxes.
The key to sustaining profits and improving environmental performance at end-of-life is to appreciate why the product is no longer used and what happens to the product at this stage. It is then possible to make appropriate design changes to minimise both the costs and the environmental impacts. Part of the challenge with cleaner design is to improve the options at end-of-life.
At the end of its ‘first’ life, the product (or parts of it) can be re-used, remanufactured, recycled, disposed of in an incinerator (to recover energy) or disposed of to landfill. In the future, and perhaps even today, the further down the hierarchy the end-of-life option chosen is then the higher the cost.
In an environment where the ‘producer pays’ there is a need to improve control of the product during and after use to reduce costs, this can be achieved by:
- Labelling re-usable and recyclable parts.
- Using existing distribution channels to collect used products or components.
- Developing new distribution and more effective recovery channels to collect used products or components.
- Keeping up-to-date with developments in recovery and recycling to improve the options available.
- Discussing ways of recovering and recycling products with trade associations, waste management companies or companies offering similar products.
Designers need to find out what is happening to the products now to provide directions for the future. Examination of the current methods of disposal can reveal opportunities for increasing the product’s recycling potential and decreasing the end-of-life costs. Typical questions are:
- Is the product typically disposed of to landfill? This can give rise to environmental impacts through the production of leachate and landfill gas and will be subject to increased costs in the future.
- Can the product be re-used or recycled instead of being sent to landfill?
- If products with only minor faults are typically discarded, is it possible to salvage some of the parts or components for reuse or remanufacture?
- Is there potential for re-using modules or parts of the product at the end of its useful life?
- Does the product contain materials or components that can be easily recovered and recycled to reduce costs?
- Can various modules or parts be stamped with labels indicating their recycling potential? This is particularly relevant for plastics where standard material designations and labels are available for common materials.
- Can the product and/or its modules be designed for service or maintenance to increase their life span?
- Can a product take-back service be developed to reduce ‘producer pays’ costs?
Answering these questions will help to identify the existing options for product re-use, recycling or recovery. In the future these will need to be improved to minimise the total cost of the product and avoid end-of-life costs that were not accounted for in the ‘first’ cost of the product.
Designers need to consider the costs of the end-of-life stage of products now - if this is ignored then the eventual costs will be unduly high if legislation changes. Designers must:
- Make re-use, remanufacturing and recycling easier for all products - re-using, remanufacturing or recycling all or part of the product will significantly reduce the eventual costs by reducing raw material use and diverting material away from limited landfill space.
- Design the product for re-use in its current form (i.e. without processing) - this can extend the useful life of the product. Future product designs need to incorporate the requirements of subsequent uses, e.g. for packaging and containers, this may mean extra durability and the introduction of a re-use system suitable for the market.
- Design for product remanufacture or recycling - this needs increased focus on the physical organisation of the product, i.e. the structure and the way in which components and materials are put together. Reducing the number of fastenings and making fastenings easier to undo will help to make the product easier to disassemble and recycle.
- Design to enable recycling by reducing the number of materials used - single material products are much easier to recycle.
- Design to eliminate materials that can be hazardous during remanufacturing or make recycling difficult.
Cleaner design in the future will not be easy but the alternative high end-of-life costs are even less acceptable.
The end-of-life cost hierarchy
The most common end-of-life option today (disposal) is destined to become the most costly option in the future. If there is no viable cost effective alternative to disposal then designers must attempt to reduce costs and the environmental impact of disposal.
Landfilling any product consumes limited landfill capacity and the cost of this is destined to rise. Depending on the material used, landfill can pose potential toxicity problems to land, watercourses and groundwater, e.g. through chlorinated solvents in landfill leachate. To reduce the cost of the landfill option, designers should:
- Design the product to allow the volume to be reduced before disposal to reduce landfill charges.
- Choose materials, where possible and appropriate, to build in biodegradability.
- Reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials in the product design to avoid additional ‘special waste’ charges.
Incineration with energy recovery provides an alternative ‘disposal’ option for some products and plastics are excellent for producing energy during incineration. They do, however, require good control systems to reduce harmful emissions.
Whatever options are chosen for the product end-of-life stage, it is certain that the costs will rise in the future and cleaner design offers a unique opportunity to minimise these costs at source.
- Increases in regulations for disposal of products and emissions, e.g. WEEE, RoHS, Automotive End of Life (EOLV directive) and CFC regulations.
- Increase in cost of disposal of products and emissions.
- Market effects of product disposal costs impact on producers and increasingly on consumers, e.g. refrigerators and cars.
- Rising emissions charges, e.g. Climate Change Levy and Landfill taxes to reflect reductions in disposal sites.
- EMS will become an essential qualification for business continuity.
- Improve resource efficiency and reduce resource usage to minimise effects of rising disposal costs.
- Plan to actively manage tradeable resource credits as they are introduced, e.g. carbon trading, PRNs.
- Formulate a ‘take-back’ strategy to deal with emerging product end-of-life requirements.
- Monitor resource intensity and follow legislation as a tool for success, not as a minimum compliance requirement.
- Change or modify accounting systems and verify resource intensity to enable resource credit trading.
- Form customer and end user partnerships to enable ‘take-back’ strategy to be implemented when appropriate.
- Minimising the inevitable effects of increasing disposal and end-of-life costs.
- Environmental design and control will become an essential cost control and marketing tools.
- Cleaner Technology - An essential guide for industry (GG288).
- Cleaner Product Design - An introduction for industry (GG294).
- Cleaner Product Design - Examples from industry (GG295).
- Cleaner Product Design - A practical approach (GG296).
Available free from the Environment and Energy Helpline (0800 585 794) or can be downloaded from this site.
The 'Resource Efficiency' series is designed to give plastics processors a route map to the future for the plastics industry. The series is:
Part 1: Resource Efficiency
Part 2: Manufacturing - Targeting Efforts
Part 3: Use - Optimising Usage
Part 4: End-of-Life - Minimising Outputs (This Section)
Part 5: Raw Materials - Minimising Inputs
Part 6: Distribution - The Essential Link
Download the complete series as an Adobe Acrobat file.
Last edited: 11/03/10
© Tangram Technology Ltd. 2003
Our standard disclaimer regarding Internet data applies.