Avaliação do ciclo de vida de garrafas PET provenientes de fontes fósseis e renováveis

Abstract

The consumption and inappropriate disposal of plastic packaging has caused enormous damage to the environment. Currently, there is a regulatory trend for companies to adopt systems with reverse logistics and resources from renewable sources as raw materials for packaging. However, the adoption of renewable-based inputs is not a sufficient criterion for the development of environmentally friendly technologies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies are necessary to characterize the advantages and disadvantages of packaging in the face of different environmental impact categories. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of PET bottles produced from non-renewable and renewable chemical inputs. Four life cycles (systems) were evaluated, varying the origin (fossil or renewable) of PET monomers and the recycled PET resin content (from 0 to 20%) in the bottles. The life cycles were modeled using OpenLCA software with cradle-to-gate scope, assuming the production of PET bottles in Brazil as a functional unit. From the literature, the inventory for each system was developed, having as reference the state of São Paulo both as a source of raw materials and as a processing region. The indicators evaluated in this study were: occupation of agricultural land, soil transformation and natural resources, use of water resources, emission of greenhouse gases, toxicological effects on humans, fossil fuel depletion and freshwater ecotoxicity. The results indicated that the use of PET from renewable sources brings advantages, mainly in the reduction of toxicological effects (both on humans and freshwater) and on greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse (GHG). However, the same PET requires greater consumption of water resources and competes with agricultural land compared to petrochemical-based PET, which can have important social impacts The insertion of 20% recycled PET reduced all the impact indicators of the pet bottles. Therefore, the LCA carried out in this work allowed to conclude that using renewable sources does not mean reducing the impacts of the production and consumption of PET bottles in half environment, and that renewable solutions that require less use of resources such as electricity, water and farmland is needed.