Addressing Favorable and Challenging Flexible Plastic Packaging Waste Flows: A Material Flow Analysis
Name
J Adv Manuf Process - 2025 - Makarova - Addressing Favorable and Challenging Flexible Plastic Packaging Waste Flows A.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.08 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ceeab8fe0303730549acf0ffafc54213
Author(s)
Makarova, Oksana A
Ravi, Basuhi
Sobkowicz, Margaret J
Masato, Davide
Olivetti, Elsa A
Date Issued
June 5, 2025
Journal
Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
O. A. Makarova, B. Ravi, M. J. Sobkowicz, D. Masato, and E. A. Olivetti, “ Addressing Favorable and Challenging Flexible Plastic Packaging Waste Flows: A Material Flow Analysis,” Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing 7, no. 3 (2025): e70014.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The majority of post-consumer flexible plastic packaging (FPP) in the United States ends up in landfills and incinerators. Thisrepresents a significant material loss because FPP, also referred to as plastic films or foils, comprises up to half of all plasticpackaging. Since FPP encompasses a diverse range of products with varying recycling potentials, improving material recoveryrates requires a detailed understanding of the composition and quantities of used films. This study quantifies post-consumerFPP flows in the US for 2021 and estimates the fraction most suitable for mechanical recycling. We conducted a material flowanalysis (MFA) by reconciling publicly available data on packaging film generation and recycling from the US and comparableeconomies. We then categorized post-consumer FPP into three broad categories based on factors affecting the quality of the re-sulting mechanically recycled material. Our analysis reveals that only 3%–8% of the estimated 5–15 million metric tonnes of post-consumer film were recycled in 2021. Furthermore, at most 40% of the FPP could be readily mechanically recyclable, while up tohalf would be deemed non-recoverable due to techno-economic constraints. The actual proportions of challenging-to-recycle andnon-recoverable FPP might be even higher, underscoring the need for updated studies on film generation and waste compositionto assess the feasibility of scaling up nationwide film recycling.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/amp2.70014
