RESUMEN

This study analyzed the environmental impacts of nine scenarios for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle waste disposal, in the city of Bauru, Brazil. Nine scenarios were considered in this study: (1) current (base) scenario (96.4% of PET waste is sent to landfill, 3.6% is sent to sorting cooperatives); (2) 50% to sorting cooperatives, 50% to landfill; (3) 50% to sorting cooperatives, 50% to incineration; (4) 50% to landfill, 50% to incineration; (5) 100% to sorting cooperatives (keeping the current collection distribution); (6) 100% to landfill; (7) 100% to incineration; (8) and (9) 100% sent to sorting cooperatives, with changes in the collection scheme. Life cycle assessment was implemented to compute the impacts for each scenario and compare their environmental performances. The results have shown that recycling is a better option than incineration across all impact categories analyzed. Landfilling had lower net impacts than incineration in all categories, except for ozone depletion and freshwater eutrophication. All recycling scenarios proposed outperformed the current scenario in all impact categories. Even though recycling presents itself as an environmentally-promising alternative, much work still needs to be done for its successful implementation, such as promoting source-separation at home and improving the management strategies of recycling cooperatives, including additional funding and training to support an increased sorting capacity.

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RESUMEN

This paper contains a dataset and spreadsheet with the inventory, calculations and results for the Life Cycle Assessment of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle waste management options in Bauru, Brazil. Data for the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) was collected in situ at sorting cooperatives, through interviews with municipal authorities, and through literature review. Data analysis was performed using the SimaPro v8.0 software for assessment of environmental impacts, using the ReCiPe midpoint hierarchical method. The data and results contained in the spreadsheet are divided as follows: worksheet 1 provides a title page with the reference to this article; worksheet 2 provides the impact values for the impact categories considered; worksheet 3 presents the impact values for all collection and transportation fleets; worksheets 4 to 7 provide the impacts for each process and each stage (operation, emissions, and construction) for the case where: waste PET is disposed of in a landfill and the treated sludge is composted (worksheet 4); waste PET is incinerated (worksheet 5); waste PET is sent to sorting cooperatives and the reject is landfilled (worksheet 6); waste PET is sent to sorting cooperatives and the reject is incinerated (worksheet 7); worksheets 8 to 16 contain the impacts for each stage and the total impact for scenarios 1 to 9, which are combinations of the processes presented in worksheets 4 to 7, and the collection and transportation calculations for each scenario; worksheet 17 presents a summary of the net impact and the impact for each stage for all scenarios and all impact categories considered; worksheet 18 contains the impacts for each process and each stage for the case where waste PET is disposed of in a landfill, and the treated sludge is landfilled. The data in this paper are suitable for waste management researchers and professionals.

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