Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future

The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technologi...

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Veröffentlicht in:Nature (London) Jg. 626; H. 7997; S. 45 - 57
Hauptverfasser: Vidal, Fernando, van der Marel, Eva R., Kerr, Ryan W. F., McElroy, Caitlin, Schroeder, Nadia, Mitchell, Celia, Rosetto, Gloria, Chen, Thomas T. D., Bailey, Richard M., Hepburn, Cameron, Redgwell, Catherine, Williams, Charlotte K.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2024
Nature Publishing Group
Schlagworte:
639/638/224/685
639/638/455
704/844/685
706/689/280
Biomass
Carbon dioxide
Carbon Dioxide - analysis
Carbon Dioxide - chemistry
Carbon Dioxide - metabolism
Carbon dioxide emissions
Climate change
Consumption
Economics
Emissions
Environmental Pollution - economics
Environmental Pollution - legislation & jurisprudence
Environmental Pollution - prevention & control
Environmental Pollution - statistics & numerical data
Fossil Fuels
Global climate
Global Warming - prevention & control
Goals
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse Gases - analysis
Humanities and Social Sciences
Life span
multidisciplinary
Perspective
Plastic pollution
Plastics
Plastics - chemical synthesis
Plastics - economics
Plastics - metabolism
Plastics - supply & distribution
Raw materials
Recoverability
Recycling
Recycling - economics
Recycling - legislation & jurisprudence
Recycling - methods
Recycling - trends
Renewable Energy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development - economics
Sustainable Development - legislation & jurisprudence
Sustainable Development - trends
Technology - economics
Technology - legislation & jurisprudence
Technology - methods
Technology - trends
ISSN:0028-0836, 1476-4687, 1476-4687
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics. Four future greenhouse gas emission scenarios for the global plastics system are investigated, with the lead scenario achieving net-zero emissions, and a series of  technical, legal and economic interventions recommended.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-023-06939-z