Dynamic material flow analysis of plastics in China from 1950 to 2050

Plastics are the fastest growing engineering material in the world in the past 50 years. However, with the wide use of plastics, severe environmental problems have also emerged. A dynamic material flow analysis (MFA) of six polymers (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC)), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) in China was carried out in this study. The dynamic evolution of plastic material metabolism in a long period of time (1950–2020) was tracked, and the scenario of plastic material metabolism in the medium and long term (2021–2050) was analyzed. The results showed that from 1950 to 2020, 2347.3 Mt of plastics were consumed and 1420.8 Mt of plastic wastes were generated, out of which 24.7% were recycled, 18.8% were incinerated, 39.6% were landfilled and 16.8% were discarded. The largest plastic wastes were waste plastic packaging and construction materials represented the largest in-use stocks. In the future, the in-use stocks in 2050 will be about twice that in 2020. Based on these results, this study could provide a scientific basis for reducing the resource and environmental impact of plastic material metabolism, and promote the sustainable production and consumption of plastics in China.