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Quantify the impacts and benefits of using recycled plastics

Several types of plastics present in WEEE can be recycled and reintroduced into new products. These include, in particular, Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS).

Tangible environmental benefits for recycled plastics from WEEE

Several types of plastic found in WEEE can be recycled and reintegrated into new products. These include Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS) and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). To support manufacturers in their plans to integrate recycled plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), ecosystem has carried out work to quantify the environmental benefits of using these recycled plastics. The aim of this assessment is to produce reliable benchmark data that can be used to understand the challenges of integrating recycled plastics, and to enhance the value of projects to use these plastics in new products.

This work demonstrates the strong environmental benefits of using recycled plastic from WEEE in a new product, rather than the equivalent virgin plastic. The figure below shows the climate benefits assessed in two scenarios: Production of recycled pellets in Europe & injection in France (case 1) and Production of recycled pellets in Europe & injection in Europe (case 2) 

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Model the environmental footprint of your own projects for integrating recycled plastics from WEEE

ecosystem has developed a database, that is one of its kind in Europe, to assess the environmental footprint of recycled plastics produced specifically from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) streams. 

This open-access database was created to accompany and support projects involving the integration of recycled plastics, enabling you to make reliable comparisons between recycled plastics and other materials, and identify eco-design levers for your products through the choice of materials.  

Three types of recycled plastics are modelled in the database: Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS) and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). These are the most common recycled plastics produced from WEEE. To ensure that this data is representative, ecosystem has modelled the entire production process for these plastics, from the point of collection of the WEEE containing them to their final regeneration, with the involvement of stakeholders in the chain. 

This database is particularly aimed at users of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software. You can find it here: 

Find out more about the methodology 

 

If you have any questions about this data or its use, please contact us at:  weee-lci@ecosystem.eco