Life-Cycle Assessment of Recycling Postconsumer High-Density Polyethylene and Polyethylene Terephthalate

Table 10

Energy and water use for recycled HDPE resin (MBtu of energy and liter of water per ton of resin).

	Process	Transport	EMR	Total	Total %	Water use [37]
HDPE: cut-off, volume-based collection (50% compaction)
Collection (50% compaction)	0.013653	1.69	0	1.563	18.9	0
Sorting/separation	0.31	0.119	0	0.429	5.2	0
Reclaimer processing to pellet	5.4	0.87	0	6.27	75.9	426
Total for HDPE pellet	5.72	2.68	0	8.262		426
Percent by category	69.2	32.2	0	0
HDPE: system expansion, volume-based collection (50% compaction)
Allocated virgin resin production	13.58	0.55	24.8	38.93	89.91	0
Collection (50% compaction)	0.007	0.92	0	0.927	2.14	0
Sorting/separation	0.167	0.056	0	0.223	0.52	0
Reclaimer processing to pellet	2.7	0.52	0	3.22	7.44	216
Total for HDPE pellet	16.454	2.046	24.8	43.3		216
Percent by category	38.00	4.73	57.27	0