PWMI 1

Sorting, collecting, treating model study of discharged plastics from office buildings in Tokyo and

environmental evaluation of scenarios in this model using LCA

Junichi Nakahashi

Plastic Waste Management Institute, Japan

PWMI 2

Current status of plastic waste discharge and treatment in Tokyo

Industrial Plastic Waste (Tokyo 2004)

Discharge 510,000 t/

y

　 Recycling 11%　 Incineration 12%

　 Landfill 77%

ref. Household Plastic Waste (Tokyo 2004)

Discharge 500,000 t/y

　 Recycling 3%　 　 Incineration

34%　 Landfill 63%

Discharged industrial plastic waste in Tokyo is 50,0000t/y and 77% of it is currently properly disposed to landfill site.

PWMI 3

Tokyo has changed its policy on plastic waste treatment in 2006

Previous one

“Plastic is non-combustible waste and is permitted to dispose to landfill site.”

New one

“Plastic is not good to dispose to landfill site and should be treated other than disposal to landfill site.”

in 2006

PWMI 4

project members

3R promoting forum (Well-informed persons)

Tokyo industrial waste association

Tokyo (Promoter)

Japan cement association (Energy recovering business)

Tokyo building maintenance association

Japan RPF (Refuse Plastic and Paper Fuel) industrial association

Plastic Waste Management Institute (Secretariat)

Industrial plastic waste treating system project

Tokyo chamber of commerce (Discharger)

Tokyo environment maintenance public corporation

Building owners managers association, Tokyo

Project “Sorting, collecting, treating model study of discharged plastics from office buildings in Tokyo”

Entrustment To Plastic Waste Management Institute (PWMI) By Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Year (Carried out during) 2006/04-2007/03

Project “Sorting, collecting, treating model study of discharged plastics from office buildings in Tokyo”

PWMI 5

リサイクル

収集運搬車

〈分別ビル〉

Ｒ

Ｒ

Ｒ

1

中間処理施設（都内） Ｒ

Ｒ

〈分別ビル〉

対象廃プラ 分別排出

分別排出されていないビル

ご み

ご み

ご み

ご み

ご み

ご み

ご み Ｒ

Ｒ

〈分別ビル〉

荷分作業等

Ｒ Ｒ

Ｒ 網 袋 網袋に入れて回収

ご み

Ｒ

： 対 象 プ ラ ス チ ック ： 不 燃 ご み （金 属 、ガ ラ ス 、廃 プ ラ 等 ）

Plastic waste collecting system

Plastic waste for utilizingWaste not utilized

Bag of plastic net

Recycler

Collecting truck

Sorting & Packing facility

Not sorting BLDG.

Sorting BLDG.

Transparent yellow

plastic bag

Sorting & Packing

Collecting and treating system adopted in this project

PWMI 6

Scenarios of sorting, collecting, treating

Model 1

Sorting the clean plastic waste (not including contaminations like as metal, garbage) good for solid fuel (RPF (Refuse plastic & paper fuel))

Scenario A : RPF / Landfill (26/74)

Scenario B : RPF / Incineration with energy recovery (26/74)

Model 2

Sorting the clean PE and PP (not including metal, garbage, paper) good for mechanical recycling

Scenario A : Mechanical Recycling / Energy Recovery / Landfill (8/42/50)

Scenario B : Mechanical Recycling / Energy Recovery (8/92)

PWMI 7

Model 1 Sorting, collecting, treating

Office building discharges clean plastic waste using yellow bag

Yellow bags are put into blue plastic net bag and put into collecting truck with other waste and transported

Blue net bags are picked up and yellow bags in it are took out and packed to be a bale and transported to a recycler

Collected plastic is melt and blended with paper to turn into RPF

Discharge(5 office

buildings)

Collect

2t truck(4m3)

Sort, Pack

RPFmanufacture

PWMI 8

Office building location and collecting order

Waste collecting business (stating point)

Office building 1

Office building 2

Office building 3

Office building 4

Office building 5

Office building (*)

Sorting and packing business (goal point)

* Discharged plastic waste was collected but not sorted

PWMI 9

Environmental evaluation of model 1 using LCA

Present treating way : RPF / Landfill (2/98)

Scenario A : RPF / Landfill (26/74)

Compact & wrap

RPF TransportCollect & transport

Sort

Crush Landfill

Transport

Heat Energy 845MJ

Plastic for RPF0.020ｔ

Plastic for landfill　 0.980ｔ

Plastic waste1.000ｔ

Office buildingRPF0.020t

Incinerate

Compact & wrap

RPFTransportCollect & transport

Sort

Crush LandfillTransport

Plastic for RPF0.260ｔ

Plastic for landfill　 0.740ｔ

Plastic waste1.000ｔ

Office building Energy recovery 10,986MJ

Incinerate

RPF0.257t

PWMI 10

Scenario B : RPF / Energy recovery (26/74)

(ref.) Incineration without energy recovery

(ref.) Landfill

Compact & transport

RPFTransport

Collect & transport Sort

CrushTransport

Incineration with energy

recovery

Plastic waste1.000ｔ

Office building Plastic for RPF

0.260ｔ

Plastic for energy recovery　 0.740ｔ

Energy recovery 10,986MJElectricity1,504kWh

RPF 0.257t

Incinerate

CrushPlastic waste

1.000ｔIncineration

without energy recovery

Transport

Collect & transport

Office buildingPlastic 1.000ｔ

Sort

Plastic waste1.000ｔ Transport

Collect & sort

Office building Plastics 1.000ｔ

Crush & compact

Sort Landfill

PWMI 11

Designed unit Output

Present unitRPF 2%

Landfill 98%RPF combustion energy (845MJ)

Coal combustion energy

(10,141MJ)

Public electric (1,504kwh)

Scenario A unitRPF 26%

Landfill 74%RPF combustion energy (10,986MJ)

Public electric (1,504kwh)

Scenario B unit

RPF 26%

Incineration with electric generation

74%

RPF combustion energy (10,986MJ)Electric

(1,504kwh)

(ref.) Incineration unit

Incineration 100% Coal (10,986MJ)Public electric

(1,504kwh)

(ref.) Landfill unit Landfill 100% Coal (10,986MJ)Public electric

(1,504kwh)

Model 1 : Units designed by “product basket method” and outputs of them 　　　

(plastic waste : 1,000kg)

: actual output : assumed and added output

PWMI 12

Present treating unit designed by “product basket method”

Present treating unit : RPF / Landfill ( 2 / 98 )

Compact & wrap

RPF TransportCollect & transport

Sort

Crush Landfill

Transport

Heat Energy 845MJ

Plastic for RPF0.020ｔ

Plastic for landfill　 0.980ｔ

Plastic waste1.000ｔ

Office buildingRPF0.020t

Incinerate

Coal center

Mine Transport

RefinePublic power

generate

Heat Energy 10,141MJ

IncinerateFossil resource

MineFossil resource TransportElectricity1,504kwh

(Actual process)

(assumed & added processes)

System boundary

PWMI 13

0

20

40

60

80

100資源（原料）＋エネルギー

ＧＷＰ（ＣＯ２）

ＡＰ（ＳＯＸ，ＮＯＸ）

固形廃棄物

現状ユニットシナリオＡユニットシナリオＢユニット単純焼却ユニット埋立ユニット

実証モデル １ （ＲＰＦの評価：燃焼分含む）

Solid waste

Fossil resource consumption + energy consumption

Present unit

Scenario A unitScenario B unitIncineration unit

Landfill unit

Environmental impacts of scenarios on Model 1

PWMI 14

Integration of environmental impactsnormalization & weighting

Normalization

1) Energy and resource consumption were divided by total consumption in Japan.

2) Emission into air and soil were divided by total emission in Japan.

ConsumptionResource 25% - -

Energy 25% - -

Emission into Environment

Emission into Air 35%CO2 83%

SOx + NOx 17%

Emission into Soil 15% - -

Environmental impact analyzing WG in PWMI has designed this weighting index referring to Fraunhofer Institute documents, APME eco-efficiency analysis and BASF documents.

Weighting Index

Energy consumption 24x1018 MJ/Y

Resource consumption 15x1018 MJ/Y

CO2 emission 1.3x109 T/Y

SOx emission 857,000 T/Y

NOx emission 2x106 T/Y

Solid waste 48x106 T/Y

Consumption & emission in Japan

PWMI 15

Calculation of Integrated Environmental Impact

(a) Resource consumption parameter　　 = (resource consumption / total annual Japanese use) 0.25(b) Required energy parameter = (required energy / total annual Japanese use) 0.25(c) Emission parameter into atmosphere

= (CO2 / total annual Japanese emissions 1 0.83 + ((NO x / total annual Japanese emissions 0.7) + (SO x / total annual Japanese emissions 1.0)) 0.17) 0.35

(d) Emission parameter into soil = (landfill disposal / total annual Japanese landfill disposal) 0.15

Integrated Environmental Impact = SUM (a, b, c, d)

Normalization, weighting and integration were effected by the following approach

PWMI 16

98

73

25

44

100

0

20

40

60

80

100

現状ユニット シナリオＡユニット シナリオＢユニット 単純焼却ユニット 埋立ユニット

（ＲＰＦの評価：燃焼分含む）

Present unit

Scenario A unit

Scenario B unit

(ref.) Incineration

unit

(ref.) Landfill

unit

Inte

grat

ed E

nvir

onm

enta

l Im

pact

Model1 : Integrated Environmental Impact

PWMI 17

Component Plastic waste for solid fuel Plastic waste others

PE 3.3 11.7

PP 15.0 17.9

PS 6.5 21.2

PVC 0.5 0.1

Plastics (Others) 0.7 6.6

Plastics stuck by Metal - 16.4

(Total) 26.0 74.0

Plastic waste for solid fuel * : 26%Plastic waste others : 74%

* without contamination like as garbage, metal and so on

Model 1 Composition of the Plastic Waste

(%)<breakdown>

PWMI 18

Model 2 Sorting, collecting, treating

Discharge(1 office building)

Collect

2t truck(4m3)

Sort,Pack

Mechanicalrecycling

Clean plastics were picked up from the office building plastic waste by members and packed in yellow plastic bag

Yellow bags were packed into blue net bags and put into collecting truck

Blue net bags are picked up and yellow bags in it are took out and packed to be a bale and transported to a recycler

Collected plastics were mechanically recycled to be an article

PWMI 19

Plastics Others(Packaging of Bentou etc.)

93%

Clean Plastics7%

Clean plastic waste for mechanical recycling was packed in yellow transparent plastic bags

Plastic waste for mechanical recycling

PWMI 20

Model 2 : Units designed by “product basket method” and outputs of them

Designed unit Output

Present unit

Fuel for Cement 25%

Incineration with power generation 25%

Landfill 50%

Article (plastic 70kg)

Combustion energy of fuel

for cement

(10,160MJ)

Combustion energy of coal

(8,532MJ)

Generated power by

Incineration

(770kWh)

Public electricity

(448kWh)

Scenario A unit

Mechanical recycling 7%Fuel for cement 21%

Incineration with power generation 21%

Landfill 50%

Article (reclaimed

plastic 70kg)

Combustion energy of fuel

for cement

(8,610MJ)

Combustion energy of coal

(10,082MJ)

Generated power by

Incineration

(652kWh)

Public electricity

(566kWh)

Scenario B unit

Mechanical recycling 7%

Fuel for cement 46.4%

Incineration with power generation 46.4%

Article (reclaimed

plastic 70kg)

Combustion energy of fuel for cement

(18,692MJ)

Generated power by incineration

(1,218kWh)

(ref.) Incineratio

n unitIncineration 100%

Article (plastic 70kg)

Combustion energy of coal

(18,692MJ)

Public electricity

(1,218kWh)

(ref.) Landfill

unitLandfill 100%

Article (plastic 70kg)

Combustion energy of coal

(18,692MJ)

Public electricity

(1,218kWh)

: actual output : assumed and added output

PWMI 21

0

20

40

60

80

100資源（原料）＋エネルギー

ＧＷＰ（ＣＯ２）

ＡＰ（ＳＯＸ，ＮＯＸ）

固形廃棄物

現状ユニットシナリオＡユニットシナリオＢユニット単純焼却ユニット埋立ユニット

実証モデル２ （セメント原・燃料化の評価：燃焼分含む）

Solid waste

Resource consumption + energy consumption

Present unitScenario A unit

Scenario B unitIncineration unitLandfill unit

Environmental impacts of scenarios on model 2

PWMI 22

60 58

19

47

100

0

20

40

60

80

100

現状ユニット シナリオＡユニット シナリオＢユニット 単純焼却ユニット 埋立ユニット

（セメント原・燃料化の評価：燃焼分含む）

Present unit

Scenario Aunit

Scenario Bunit

(ref.) Incineration

unit

(ref.)Landfill

unit

Inte

grat

ed E

nvir

onm

enta

l Im

pact

Model 2 : Integrated Environmental Impact

PWMI 23

Component Plastic waste for solid fuel Plastic waste others

PE 4.5 16.4

PP 2.4 22.6

PS 0.3 46.6

PVC 0.02 0.6

Plastics (Others) 0 3.9

Plastics stuck by Metal - 2.5

(Total) 7.3 92.7

Plastic waste for mechanical recycling * : 7.3%Plastic waste others : 92.7%

* PE and PP without contamination like as garbage, metal, paper and so on sorted by project members

Model 2 Composition of the Plastic Waste

(%)<breakdown>

PWMI 24

1. To sort clean plastic waste and turn into solid fuel (RPF) and recover the combustion energy is effective to reduce the environmental impact compared with the present treatment in which landfill is the main treatment.

2. To sort clean plastic waste and recycle mechanically is not so effective to reduce the environmental impact because the amount of the clean plastic good for mechanical recycling is very small.

3. To make the other plastic waste other than clean one be incinerated with

energy recovery is very effective to reduce the environmental impact compared with present treatment in which landfill is the main treatment.

　 Conclusion