Product name
Waste treatment of HDPE, from households, put on market.
Reference flow
1 tonne HDPE put on market.
System boundaries
Includes the collection of plastic packaging waste (PPW) by municipalities and further waste treatment. Separated PPW is transported by train to Germany for further sorting and recycling. Sorting residues are incinerated in Germany. PPW discarded in the residual waste bin is either sent to a mixed-waste MRF in Norway or incinerated at a local incineration plant in Norway. The inventory does not include avoided emissions because of secondary products substituting other products.
Use advice of the dataset
This dataset should be used when modelling treatment of HDPE from household waste in Norway. If the purpose is to compare different waste treatment options (e.g. recycling and energy recovery), the avoided emissions should be included in each system. 1000 kg HDPE material is used in the production of 109.2 kg PO, 54.1 kg PP and 185 kg HPDE granulate in addition to the production of 14454 MJ heat and 2160 MJ electricity in Norway and 1357 MJ heat and 667 MJ electricity in Germany.
Technology description
PPW is either source separated by households or collected together with mixed waste and separated in a mixed-waste MRF afterward. In the dataset, 82% of the generated PPW is source separated, 18% is separated from mixed waste in a mixed-waste MRF. The separated PPW is sorted and recycled in three different facilities in Germany. More information about the facilities is available in Callewaert et al. (2023)
Quality level
Very good
Location
Norway
Geographical representativeness description
The Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) managing the system covers 80% of Norway population, the remaining 20% of the population (mainly Oslo) is covered by another PRO which is not included in the dataset. Site specific data is collected for the mixed waste MRFs in Norway and for the three facilities in Germany. For the background processes, ecoinvent v3.9 cut-off is used.
Quality level
Very good
Reference year
2020
Time representativeness description
Generated amount of HDPE is based on the generated amount of PPW and its composition. Source separation efficiency, transport data and division of PPW between different treatment facilities in Germany is from 2020.
Time quality level
Very good
LCI method principle
Attributional
Data collection period
2020
Data set generator
Pieter Callewaert
References
Callewaert, P., Lerche Raadal, H. & Lyng, K.-A. (2023). How to achieve ambitious recycling targets for plastic packaging waste? The environmental impact of increased waste separation and sorting in Norway. Waste Management, 171, 218-226. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.08.037
Access and use restrictions
Open
