Comparative life cycle assessment for PBAT from fossil-derived and 2nd generation biobased feedstocks

With the increasing demand for plastics, plastic pollution is growing rapidly. A significant amount of plastic has leaked into the environment, leading to severe environmental issues. Biodegradable plastics are considered promising alternatives to conventional durable plastics, and the environmental impacts of biodegradable plastics have received increasing attention. Poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is a commercial and cost-competitive biodegradable polymer and has been applied in the packaging and agriculture sectors. The environmental performances of PBAT with second-generation feedstocks from forestry waste have been rarely investigated. Since China is the leading global producer and exporter of PBAT polymer, Chinese cradle-to-gate life cycle inventories of PBAT were compiled in this study. A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to explore the potential for environmental performance of PBAT with second-generation biobased feedstock compared to fossil-derived PBAT and conventional plastics. The results showed that feedstocks contributed to more than 70 % of 18 environmental impact categories of fossil-derived PBAT. In comparison, PBAT with 2nd generation biobased feedstock reduces the environmental loads in 16 impact categories by 15-85 %, and renewable energy substitution has the potential to reduce environmental impacts by 10 %. Biobased PBAT performs better than PVC, PP, HDPE, LDPE, and PET in 16 impact categories by 15-80 %. Biobased PBAT has GWP of 3.72 kg CO