Life cycle assessment of end-of-life options for cellulose-based bioplastics when introduced into a municipal solid waste management system

The partial degradation of cellulose-based bioplastics in industrial treatment of organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) opened to the investigation of further disposal routes for bioplastics in the waste management system. For this purpose, the environmental footprint of three MSW management scenarios differing only for the bioplastics final destination (organic, plastic or mixed waste streams) was assessed through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Results revealed how the treatment of bioplastics with organic waste achieved the worst environmental performance (5.8 kg CO2 eq/FU) for most impact categories. On the other hand, treatment with plastics and mixed waste achieved negative impact values (that mean avoided GHG emissions) of −9.8 and −7.7 kg CO2 eq/FU respectively, showing comparable benefits from these scenarios. The key reason was the lower quality of compost obtained from the organic treatment route, which reduced the environmental credits achieved by the energy recovery during anaerobic digestion.