Analysis of Recycling Mechanism of Bioplastics Container in Taiwan

• Main Authors: LIN, HUI-CHU, 林慧珠
• Other Authors: CHANG, SSU-LI
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91051847325654607452

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 自然資源與環境管理研究所在職專班 === 105 === Plastic is an indispensable part of human’s daily life, however, with the rise of environmental perceptions, the risk as well as impact posed to the society has caused great concerns. It holds some properties, such as low cost, light weight and durability that products made has been widely used in the market, but also hard to dispose of at the end of the product lifecycle. Vast amount of plastic waste gererated each year without appropriate treatment is end up in the natural environment which caused damage to the ecology all over the world. To solve the problem, policy of the "restrictions on the use of plastic bags and pallet" has been promoted by the government of Taiwan. As a result, the relevant industries have gradually adopts biodegradable plastics （PLA） as alternative packaging materials. This study is based on literature review in which a comparison is made between PLA and its petrochemical counterparts for their environmental performance. To this end, results of relevant life cycle assessment (LCA) studies are collected and reviewed for information, such as the existing life cycle assessment of petrochemical plastic containers and bioplastic containers ecological assessment analysis and market situation survey. Comparative life cycle assessments are of particular importance here, because often consideration of the entire life cycle only makes strengths and weaknesses of biodegradable packagings apparent. The characteristics of bioplastics and traditional plastic are vary widely, but the appearance are very similar. Most people are not easy to identify.In the results of expert interviews, most of the recycling industry consider that the quality of bioplastics recycling in the classification is not easy, and the adverse use of traditional plastic recycling system, and thus they are very exclusive of bioplastics. Currently, although PLA is not a recycling efficiency in Taiwan, result shown a lower energy consumption and carbon emission of the tradition plastic when compare with the PLA. The nvironmental advantages exist in the traditional plastics, along with the problems and high cost of bioplastics for its collection, sorting the recycling, expansion use of the latter will have its market limit and the prohihition and restriction of the use of tradition plastics are bound to be difficult. It is recommended to separate the PLA from the traditional plastic to reduce the PLA mixed with the traditional plastic recycling system, affecting the quality of recycled materials. Counseling to improve the efficiency of sorting, reduce the cost of artificial sorting in order to achieve sustainable development and zero pollution of environmental goals.