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Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Towards higher quality of recycled plastics: Limitations from the material’s perspective(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2021-11-30); ; ; ; The increasing consumption of plastics and plastic products results in correspondingly substantial volumes of waste, which poses considerable environmental burdens. With the ongoing environmental actions, the application of circular economy on this waste stream is becoming inevitable. In this paper, the topics of plastics recycling, circular economy on plastics, and challenges to plastic waste recycling are critically reviewed. In the first part of this paper, the development of research on plastic recycling was viewed from 1950 until 2020 using the scientific database Web of Science, and 682 related studies were found and used to assess the changing research priorities along that timeline. The following sections discuss the potentials and requirements to enhance the quality of the produced recycled plastic, in connection with the factors that currently limit it. In conclusion, the quality of recycled plastic is generally determined by the homogeneity of the recovered plastic feed. There are various strategies which could be implemented to overcome the hindrances identified in the paper and to improve the quality of the recycled plastic, such as working on enhanced product designs for minimised waste heterogeneity and controlling the materials’ degree of contamination by applying advanced sorting.Publicationtype: Journal ArticleScopus© Citations 15 151 385 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Estimation of methane production and electrical energy generation from municipal solid waste disposal sites in Pakistan(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2021-05-01); ; ; ; This work aimed to estimate the annual methane production from the municipal solid waste disposal sites in Pakistan. In this study, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) default methodology was used to estimate theoretical methane formation potential of the waste disposal sites in major cities of Pakistan. The estimates of this study are based on the last population census conducted in the year 2017 and latest available data regarding the waste generation and management practices in the cities considered in the study. Results showed that 31.18 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated annually. The top 10 major populated cities in Pakistan (with 20% share in country’s population) contributing 31% share in the total quantity of MSW generated in overall country. On average 50–60% of the MSW generated is collected and openly dumped at the designated waste disposal sites. After analyzing the data, we estimate that annually 12.8 MtCO2-eq of methane is emitted from the waste disposal sites in major cities considered in this study. The methane produced from the waste disposal sites can be sustainably utilized as a source of energy through transforming MSW disposal sites (open dumps) to sanitary landfills with methane capturing and utilization facilities. In the present scenario of waste management and methane formation potential, sanitary landfills would generate 62.35 MWh of electric power if 25% of the methane was recovered and utilized in power generation.Publicationtype: Journal ArticleScopus© Citations 14 183 139