Environmental and economic assessment of plastic waste recycling and energy recovery pathways in the EU

• LCA and LCC are applied to assess the impacts of plastic waste management. • We compare mechanical recycling, physical recycling, chemical recycling and energy recovery. • Physical and chemical recycling outperform energy recovery on climate change. • A clear ranking cannot be established amongst mechanical, physical and chemical recycling. • Acknowledging costs uncertainty, recycling of plastic waste needs support to be competitive with energy recovery. Physical and chemical recycling technologies are seen as key to increasing plastic recycling, although their potential environmental and economic impacts are not yet fully understood. This study provides a comparative environmental and economic assessment of plastic waste recycling (mechanical, physical, chemical) and energy recovery, using primary data complemented with external information. Our findings suggest that for climate change mitigation, physical or chemical recycling constitute better alternative for processing plastic waste currently sent to energy recovery or landfill. This preference does not hold true for other impact categories given the current EU energy mix, but it is likely to apply in a future cleaner EU energy system. A clear ranking could not be established amongst mechanical, physical and chemical recycling as their environmental performance depends on the specific plastic waste fraction treated. The same applies for costs. The findings of this study can be used to support policy makers and businesses in their decision-making by establishing whether either recycling (mechanical, physical, chemical) or energy recovery of plastic waste are the preferred solution from an environmental and economic point of view.