Integrated manufacturing of REciclable multi-material COmposites for the TRANSport sector
Circularity: Understanding the Environmental Tradeoffs of Additive Manufacturing with Waste Plastics
This paper examines the emissions tradeoffs of additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) using plastic waste in fused granular fabrication (FGF) versus traditional fused filament fabrication (FFF) and injection molding (IM). A ‘cradle-to-gate’ life cycle assessment (LCA) was utilized to compare these methods, built in OpenLCA v1.11.0 with the Ecoinvent v3.9.1 database. Different scenarios were used to evaluate the impacts of varying transportation and material inputs, highlighting critical emission contributors in manufacturing plastic goods. FGF with waste plastic can significantly reduce climate impact by 82.1% relative to FFF and 70.6% relative to IM for a specified unit product. Even with varied transportation and materials, FGF is a lower CO2-equivalent emitting method. Utilizing FGF with waste plastic as a manufacturing method could reduce emissions and divert plastic from landfills and the environment, thereby contributing to a circular plastic economy.
» Author: Eesha Bilal
» Reference: doi: 10.3390/recycling9050072
» Publication Date: 28/08/2024
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 768737
