Publication detail

Optimizing plastics recycling networks

AVISO, K. BAQUILLAS, J. CHIU, A. JIANG, P. FAN, Y. VARBANOV, P. KLEMEŠ, J. TAN, R.

Original Title

Optimizing plastics recycling networks

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Plastic pollution is a serious sustainability issue facing the global community. Fragments of macroplastics and microplastics pollute terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, while nanoplastics can also degrade air quality. The recent COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated the problem. Large-scale commercial use of plastics recycling technologies is hindered by various socio-economic barriers. In particular, cross-contamination of mixed plastic streams is prevalent due to imperfect waste segregation. The concept of Plastics Recycling Networks is intro-duced to facilitate planning of reverse supply chains using optimization models. In this work, basic Linear Programming and Mixed-Integer Linear Programming models are developed for matching sources of waste plastic with plastic recycling plants within Plastics Recycling Networks. These models allocate streams while considering the ability of recycling plants to tolerate contaminants. Two illustrative case studies are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the models, and policy implications for mitigation of plastic pollution are dis-cussed. These models enable planning of networks with some tolerance for contaminants in plastic waste, and can be the basis for developing new variants to handle additional real world aspects.

Keywords

Circular economy; Microplastics; Plastic waste; Process integration; Reverse logistics

Authors

AVISO, K.; BAQUILLAS, J.; CHIU, A.; JIANG, P.; FAN, Y.; VARBANOV, P.; KLEMEŠ, J.; TAN, R.

Released

14. 6. 2023

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

ELSEVIERRADARWEG 29, 1043 NX AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

ISBN

2666-7908

Periodical

Cleaner Engineering and Technology

Year of study

14

Number

1

State

Kingdom of the Netherlands

Pages count

8

URL

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266679082300037X?via%3Dihub

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/244968

BibTex

@article{BUT187291,
  author="Kathleen B. {Aviso} and Jonna C. {Baquillas} and Anthony S. F. {Chiu} and Peng {Jiang} and Yee Van {Fan} and Petar Sabev {Varbanov} and Jiří {Klemeš} and Raymond R {Tan}",
  title="Optimizing plastics recycling networks",
  journal="Cleaner Engineering and Technology",
  year="2023",
  volume="14",
  number="1",
  pages="8",
  doi="10.1016/j.clet.2023.100632",
  issn="2666-7908",
  url="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266679082300037X?via%3Dihub"
}