title: End-of-life of starch-polyvinyl alcohol biopolymers.
abstract: This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) model comparing the waste management options for starch-polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) biopolymers including landfill, anaerobic digestion (AD), industrial composting and home composting. The ranking of biological treatment routes for starch-PVOH biopolymer wastes depended on their chemical compositions. AD represents the optimum choice for starch-PVOH biopolymer containing N and S elements in global warming potential (GWP(100)), acidification and eutrophication but not on the remaining impact categories, where home composting was shown to be a better option due to its low energy and resource inputs. For those starch-PVOH biopolymers with zero N and S contents home composting delivered the best environmental performance amongst biological treatment routes in most impact categories (except for GWP(100)). The landfill scenario performed generally well due largely to the 100-year time horizon and efficient energy recovery system modeled but this good performance is highly sensitive to assumptions adopted in landfill model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UK. miao.guo06@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Stuckey
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000378:metabolism*; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000378:metabolism*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000378:metabolism*; D012987:Soil; D013213:Starch / Q000378:metabolism*; D013455:Sulfur / Q000032:analysis; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D012987:Soil; D014866:Waste Products; D013455:Sulfur; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol; D013213:Starch; D009584:Nitrogen