Plastic packaging waste management in Germany: Evaluating and optimizing material flows and environmental impacts

Since 1990, the annual plastic packaging consumption by private end users in Germany more than doubled. This trend can be attributed to plastic's advantageous properties such as its low weight, cost-effectiveness, and customizable features. However, plastic packaging is also widely criticized due to its dependency on fossil fuels, short lifespan, and potential contribution to marine littering. The tension between the popularity of plastic packaging and the environ-mental challenges associated with a short-term product life underlines the need for compre-hensive plastic packaging waste management concepts. The overall goal of this Thesis was to evaluate the performance of plastic packaging waste management in terms of material efficiency and environmental impacts to identify optimal plas-tic packaging waste management concepts in Germany, today and in the future.
The cumulative Thesis consists of four publications. In Publication I, the suitability of material efficiency indicators to assess the environmental performance of waste management systems was investigated for the case of PET bottle waste management in Austria, Germany, and Ser-bia. Optimal management concepts for single-use and packaging plastic waste from a circular economy perspective were identified in Publication II by investigating the effects of different strategies for single-use and packaging plastic management on material efficiency and waste treatment capability through a material flow analysis of single-use and packaging plastic con-taining household waste in Germany. In Publication III, the environmental performance of plas-tic packaging waste management in Germany was assessed, and long-term key factors were determined. In Publication IV, the Environmental Waste Utilization score was introduced as a new life cycle assessment-based indicator for waste management systems and applied to plastic packaging waste management in Germany.
In 2017, 25 kg of plastic packaging waste was generated by private end-users in Germany, thereof 73% was source-separated and 45% was recycled. A life cycle assessment revealed that plastic packaging waste management is associated with environmental benefits in all im-pact categories considered. However, plastic packaging waste management cannot fully com-pensate the environmental burdens of plastic packaging production. Waste prevention, source separation and an increase in the quantity and quality of recycled plastics are essential to optimize the material efficiency and environmental performance of plastic packaging waste management.
The results of this Thesis emphasize the importance of understanding systemic effects within waste management systems and interdependencies with changing boundary conditions to identify optimal configurations of future plastic waste management and to enable sound deci-sion support on strategies for environmentally robust waste management.