resources, conservation ELSEVIER Resources, Conservation and Recycling 15 ( 1995) 5 l-63 and recycling Environmental impacts by disposal of plastic from municipal solid waste Claus Molgaard Institute of Manufacturing Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 28O@ Lyngby, Denmark Received 13 February 1995; revised 6 March 1995; accepted 7 March 1995 Abstract A steadily increasing demand for recycling of polymers has resulted in a demand for methods making it possible to compare different disposal processes’ influence on the environment and on the resources. ‘Ecoprofiles’ can be used for ranking of different disposal processes in an environmentally and resource compatible way. An ecoprofile is an assessment of the environmental and resource impacts for a given disposal process, and those processes influenced by the disposal process. Within the constraints and boundaries imposed by the model, assumptions made, and data utilized, this article describes ecoprofiles for six different ways of disposing the plastic fraction in municipal solid waste. The following disposal processes are studied: ( 1 and 2) two different material recycling processes that include separation of the plastic waste; (3) material recycling without separation of the plastic waste; (4) pyrolysis; (5) incineration with heat recovery; and (6) landfill. Keywords: Emission; Life cycle assessment; Ecoprofile; Disposal process: Recycling; Plastic; Resources 1. Theory An ecoprofile is based on the same theory as life cycle assessments, but where the ‘life cycle assessment’ describes environmental and resource impacts for a product in its entire life cycle, the ‘ecoprofiles’ describes environmental and resource impact in a way which makes it possible to rank different disposal processes. According to Hauschild [ 1] envi- ronmental impacts can be classified as seen in Table 1. The first step in preparing a life cycle assessment or an ecoprofile is a description of the system that is going to be studied. The second step is an inventory of all emissions and resource consumption caused by the processes in the life cycle. The third step in preparing a life cycle assessment or an ecoprofile is standardization of the emissions. By standardi- zation all emissions are converted to a total contribution for each effect listed in Table 1. Weighting factors for conversion of different emissions into a common unit of kg ‘emission’ 0921-3449/95/$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSD10921-3449(95)00013-5