Analysing the sustainability of cascade recycling in plastic manufacturing

Abstract

This study ventures to further sustainable manufacturing by showing how a cascade recycling approach can be utilised by a plastic cosmetic packaging company. Three reprocessing cycles were assessed from product quality, environmental, financial and social points of view. It is shown how the cascade approach did not negatively affect the quality of the produced parts and when compared to a no-recycling scenario, the proposed three-cascade recycling approach results in 28.1% less costs and 29.3% less carbon footprint. The labour increases up to a maximum of 7 hours per 50,000 products. When compared to a conventional in-house recycling scenario, the proposed approach would reduce the costs by 11.7% and the carbon footprint by 12.9%.