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Comparative analysis of carbon emission from products of virgin plastics and recycled plastics and their environmental benefits

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the fundamental requirements for technical advancement in order to reduce the impact of Carbon Emissions during plastic production and to properly utilize plastic waste through recycling. It has been analyzed that various products made from recycled plastics result significantly low carbon emission in respect to various products made from virgin plastics. Component production, product assembly, product usage, and disposal or recycling is the four stages involved in the creation of a basic plastic product. Energy and raw materials are required in each of these processes. To understand efficacy of recycled plastics, multilayered plastics has been converted to products such as furniture, single use plastics such as plastic bags have been converted to pavement tiles and tetra pack has been converted to synthetic cotton. These results reveal that manufacturing steps for making these products are relatively low in comparison with the products are manufactured from virgin plastics. Hence, it has been concluded that by applying recycled plastics, it will not only result economically viable products but also a green technology leading to low carbon emission to the environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapetham, Coimbatore, TN, 641112, India

    A. Ganesan, H. Preetha, S. Subathara & S. Bhowmik

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  1. A. Ganesan
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  2. H. Preetha
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  3. S. Subathara
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  4. S. Bhowmik
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Correspondence to S. Bhowmik.

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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Editorial responsibility: Hari Pant.

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Ganesan, A., Preetha, H., Subathara, S. et al. Comparative analysis of carbon emission from products of virgin plastics and recycled plastics and their environmental benefits. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 6713–6722 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04337-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04337-y

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