Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to be reduced to limit global warming. Plastic production requires carbon raw materials and energy that are associated today with predominantly fossil raw materials and fossil GHG emissions. Worldwide, the plastic demand is increasing annually by 4%. Recycling technologies can help save or reduce GHG emissions, but they require comparative assessment. Thus, we assess mechanical recycling, chemical recycling by means of pyrolysis and a consecutive, complementary combination of both concerning Global Warming Potential (GWP) [CO₂e], Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) [MJ/kg], carbon efficiency [%], and product costs [€] in a process-oriented approach and within defined system boundaries. The developed techno-economic and environmental assessment approach is demonstrated in a case study on recycling of separately collected mixed lightweight packaging (LWP) waste in Germany. In the recycling paths, the bulk materials polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyvinylchloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS) are assessed. The combined mechanical and chemical recycling (pyrolysis) of LWP waste shows considerable saving potentials in GWP (0.48 kg CO₂e/kg input), CED (13.32 MJ/kg input), and cost (0.14 €/kg input) and a 16% higher carbon efficiency compared to the baseline scenario with state-of-the-art mechanical recycling in Germany. This leads to a combined recycling potential between 2.5 and 2.8 million metric tons/year that could keep between 0.8 and 2 million metric tons/year additionally in the (circular) economy instead of incinerating them. This would be sufficient to reach both EU and German recycling rate targets (EC 2018). This article met the requirements for a gold-silver JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

中文翻译：

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不同塑料回收途径的技术经济评估和比较：德国案例研究

需要减少温室气体 (GHG) 排放以限制全球变暖。塑料生产需要碳原料和能源，而如今这些原料和能源主要与化石原料和化石温室气体排放相关。在全球范围内，塑料需求每年以 4% 的速度增长。回收技术有助于节省或减少温室气体排放，但需要进行比较评估。因此，我们评估机械回收、通过热解的化学回收以及与全球变暖潜能值 (GWP) [CO ₂e]、累积能源需求 (CED) [MJ/kg]、碳效率 [%] 和产品成本 [€] 在面向过程的方法和定义的系统边界内。已开发的技术经济和环境评估方法在德国单独收集的混合轻型包装 (LWP) 废物回收的案例研究中得到了证明。在回收路径中，评估散装材料聚丙烯 (PP)、聚乙烯 (PE)、聚氯乙烯 (PVC) 和聚苯乙烯 (PS)。LWP 废物的机械和化学联合回收（热解）在 GWP（0.48 kg CO ₂e/kg 投入）、CED（13.32 MJ/kg 投入）和成本（0.14 欧元/kg 投入），与德国采用最先进机械回收的基准情景相比，碳效率提高了 16%。这导致综合回收潜力介于 2.5 至 280 万吨/年之间，在（循环）经济中，而不是焚烧它们，可以保持每年 0.8 至 200 万吨/年。这足以达到欧盟和德国的回收率目标（EC 2018）。本文满足http://jie.click/badges 上描述的金银JIE数据开放徽章的要求。