The road to sustainable use and waste management of plastics in Portugal

Highlights

• Portugal recycles 34% of the 40 kg/hab year of plastic packaging waste.

• Recycling of plastics in Portugal produces a final revenue of 167 €/t.

• Recycling and recovery must be the priority for imported wastes.

• Beach litter must be reduced from 330 to 20 items/100 m (94%) under EU goals.

• Consumption, use, and waste management of plastics need to improve.

Abstract

As a European Union (EU) member, Portugal must comply with reductions in plastic waste. In Portugal, the 330 items/100 m of beach litter, comprising up to 3.9 million pieces and of which 88% is plastic, is higher than the EU median (149 items/100 m) and must be reduced to 20 items/100 m (94%). Integrative measures are needed to reduce littering and improve plastics’ use and disposal under the circular economy. Of this 414 kt of plastic packaging waste, 163 kt were declared plastic packaging, 140 kt subjected to recycling, and 94 kt to energy recovery. The current recycling rate of plastic packaging (34%) should be improved to reach EU recycling averages (42%) and goals and to provide widespread benefits, considering revenues of 167 €/t. As a net importer of waste, Portugal could benefit from the valorization of imported waste. Besides increased recycling, pyrolysis and gasification could provide short-term alternatives for producing value-added substances from plastic waste, such as hydrogen, consistent with the National Plan of Hydrogen and improving ongoing regulations on single-use plastics. This manuscript provides an integrative view of plastics in Portugal, from use to disposal, providing specific recommendations under the circular economy.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Single-use plastics / Plastic packaging / Plastic waste / Waste management / Waste shipment / Lightweight plastic bags

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CREDIT:

Joana C. Prata: Conceptualization, Project administration, Visualization, Writing- original draft, Writing- review and editing. Ana Luisa Silva: Writing- original draft, Writing- review and editing. Armando C. Duarte: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Writing- review and editing. Teresa Rocha-Santos: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Writing- review and editing.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support (UIDP/50017/2020+ UIDB/50017/2020), through national funds. This work was also funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) through the scholarship PD/BD/135581/2018 and the research contract CEECIND/01366/2018 under POCH funds, co-financed by the European Social Fund and Portuguese National Funds from MEC. Thanks are due to Ana Luísa Martino Costa for proofreading the article.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1439-x and is accessible for authorized users.

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