HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
OFFICE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDY PROGRAMS

GREEN TECHNOLOGY
Topic:
LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF BIO-PLASTIC STRAW
CC01 --- HK211
DATE: 15/11/2021
Lecture: Dr. Lâm Văn Giang
Number
1
2
3
4
Name
Lê Nguyễn Minh Trang
Nguyễn Lam Thuyên
Châu Trần Giang Thi
Nguyễn Thị Thuý Hạ
Student ID
1852801
1852774
1852087
1852351
Ho Chi Minh City – 2021
0
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... 2
ACKNOWLEDGMENT..................................................................................... 3
PART I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 4
1.1 Environmental impact of Plastic Straws ..................................................... 4
1.1.1 Harm to human health .............................................................................. 4
1.1.2 Harm to animals ....................................................................................... 5
1.1.3 Harm to the environment ......................................................................... 5
1.2 Bio-plastic straw ............................................................................................ 6
1.3 Theory of LCA ............................................................................................... 6
PART II: LCA OF BIO-PLASTIC STRAWS ............................................... 12
2.1 Goal & Scope definition .............................................................................. 12
2.1.1 Goal ........................................................................................................ 12
2.1.2 Scope ...................................................................................................... 12
2.2 Inventory analysis ....................................................................................... 14
2.2.1 Environmental burdens .......................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Transportation process ........................................................................... 21
2.3 Impact Assessment ...................................................................................... 22
2.4 Life cycle Interpretation ............................................................................. 26
PART III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .................................................... 27
3.1 Overall results of Bio-plastic ...................................................................... 27
3.2 Recommendations ....................................................................................... 27
PART IV: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 28
PART V: REFFERENCES .............................................................................. 29
1
ABSTRACT
It was found that the amount of single-use plastic items is increasing and
becoming of great concern in our everyday lives. One of these items is the plastic
drinking straw, billions of which are used in coffee shops, restaurants, or takeaway
meals every year. Plastic straws are difficult to recycle, potentially harmful to the
environment, and adversely affect plants and animals all over the world. One of the
solutions to reduce the number of plastic straws and their great harm is bio-plastic
straws. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies for bio-plastic and paper straws have not
been comprehensively performed previously. Therefore, the impact of both bio-plastic
and paper straws on the environment is quantified and compared in this study.
This report will study bio-plastic straws and the problems associated with them.
The purpose of this project is to find out the core problem of the research subject and
determine whether bio-plastic straws are the solution for Green technology. However,
the main goal is to raise students' awareness of environmental protection. Through this
lesson, we have a better understanding of the subject of Green Technology and can apply
our understanding of this subject to improve environmental issues.
We are very careful in finding and selecting topics for research. We draw on the
knowledge we have learned from Green Technology and seek information from various
reliable academic sources to serve the research process in the most efficient and accurate
way. Thanks to the theoretical knowledge we have learned, we can apply it to analyze
problems more easily. After the research process, we realized that it is extremely
necessary to apply green technologies to improve environmental problems.
2
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr. Lam Van Giang
for providing expertise, and enthusiastic support, giving us advice during the teaching
process so that we can complete this report in the best way.
Next, a complete report cannot fail to include the contributions of all team
members. A big thank you to each team member who took the time to research and
complete this report.
3
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Environmental impact of Plastic Straws
In recent years, concern has mounted over the increasing quantities of single-use
plastic items that are becoming part of our everyday lives. One of these items is the
plastic straw which is classified as non-biodegradable waste and is one of the types of
garbage that has a serious impact on the ocean environment. According to the research
results of two Australian scientists, Denise Hardesty and Chris Wilcox, about 8.3 billion
plastic straws are found and are polluting oceans worldwide.
Plastic straws are everywhere in the world. Although they do not take up too
much space and are small in size, they have the potential to pollute the environment and
are extremely dangerous to human health if not recycled and disposed of properly.
1.1.1 Harm to human health
Plastic straws, if made from standard plastic materials, are not likely to cause
harm to users' health. However, there is currently no quality control agency for plastic
straws. Therefore, many establishments instead of using standard plastic, will use
recycled plastic to produce plastic straws. Besides, For the purpose of profit
optimization, many beverage stores have decided to reuse plastic straws. Specifically,
after each sale, these straws will be collected, washed and reused. Inside they hide
hundreds of bacteria, viruses, ... capable of causing many serious diseases to humans.
Besides the main ingredient is plastic, plastic straws also contain BPA (Bisphenol
A), phthalates, etc. These are chemicals that help increase the durability of straws. Many
scientific studies show that at high temperatures, these substances can cause many
serious diseases such as breast cancer, endocrine disorders, prostate cancer, brain
retardation, infertility. Plastic straws that are recycled can still contain many types of
bacteria, germs, ... causing many serious diseases if used for a long time. Plastic straws
can injure children without adult supervision. In the US, more than 1,400 people are
hospitalized each year because of plastic straws. Among them are usually children under
4
12 years of age. Poor quality plastic straws can damage the digestive system and become
the cause of early puberty in children.
1.1.2 Harm to animals
Because of its small size, many animals easily mistake plastic straws for food.
Due to its cylindrical shape, plastic straws can cause suffocation and death for animals.
According to statistics of the organization "One Less Straw", every year, millions of
marine animals and seabirds die from ingesting single-use plastic straws, plastic water
bottles, plastic bags, etc. While plastic bags are the most common thing found in sea
turtles, plastic straws were the second most common. Not long ago, two marine
biologists discovered a sea turtle had a plastic straw in its nose, causing suffocation and
possibly death. After being treated, a 12cm long straw was removed. The turtle's nose
was bleeding and it looked very painful. The above information shows us that plastic
straws are fragile and small. But their harm to animals is immense.
1.1.3 Harm to the environment
Similar to other plastic products, plastic straws take 100 to 500 years to
decompose in the natural environment, which makes the environment seriously polluted
day by day. When plastic straws are mixed into the soil, it will change the natural
characteristics of the soil, which will slow down plant growth and degrade the
ecosystem. When entering the sewer system, ponds, ditches, etc., plastic straws will clog
the flow, causing flooding when it rains heavily, creating favorable conditions for
disease-causing animals to develop. For example, mosquitoes are the main cause of
dengue fever. When entering the ocean, plastic straws will destroy the habitat of marine
life. Causing many species to die by mistaking plastic straws for food. Toxic gases such
as Dioxin and Furan will be generated when burning plastic straws is destroyed. These
gases are extremely dangerous to human health and have the potential to cause serious
air pollution.
5
1.2 Bio-plastic straw
Researchers have come up with a type of bio-plastic straws to reduce the volume
of plastic waste, especially plastic straws in the world to protect the environment and
human health. Bio-plastic straws are made wholly or in part from renewable biomass
sources such as sugarcane and corn, or from microbes such as yeast. Some bio-plastic
straws are biodegradable or even compostable, under the right conditions. Bio-plastics
can biodegrade into CO2, H2O, humus... under the influence of microorganisms. There
is this conversion because during the production of starch, after fermentation into lactic
acid, it undergoes lactide polymerization into polylactide acid (PLA) chain molecules
and polylactic acid itself will convert to H2O and CO2. Bio-plastic straws made from
renewable resources can be naturally recycled by biological processes, thus limiting the
use of fossil fuels and protecting the environment. Therefore, bio-plastic straws are
sustainable, largely biodegradable, and biocompatible. Unlike traditional plastic straws
that need 100 to 500 years to decompose in the natural environment, bio-plastic straws
will decay after 2 to 5 years.
1.3 Theory of LCA
Life-cycle assessment is a tool for assessing the environmental performance of a
product, process or activity from ‘cradle to grave’ (Handbook of Green Chemistry and
Technology)
Figure 1. Positioning LCA within the context of sustainable development (SA =
sustainable activity)
6
In LCA the boundary is set to encompass the following life-cycle stages:
 Extraction and processing of raw materials

Manufacturing

Transportation and distribution

Use, reuse and maintenance

Recycling

Final disposal
Methodological framework
The life-cycle of a product starts from the extraction and processing of raw
materials, which then are transported to the manufacturing site to produce a product.
The product then is transported to the user and at the end of its useful life is either
recycled or is disposed of in a landfill. In all of these stages, materials and energy are
consumed and wastes and emissions generated.
7
Both SETAC (Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) and ISO
(International Standardization Organization) define four phases within the LCA
methodological framework, with small differences between the two methodologies:
(1) Goal definition and scoping

Defining the purpose of the study and its intended use

Scoping explains what assumptions have been made and why, and defines the
limitations of the study, system and the system boundaries, including its spatial
and temporal limits.

This phase also includes an assessment of the data quality and establishing the
specific data quality goals.
(2) Inventory analysis
It represents a quantitative description of the system. Inventory analysis includes:
 Further definition of the system and its boundaries
 Representing the system in the form of flow diagrams
 Data collection
 Allocation of environmental burdens
 Calculation and reporting of the results
 Sensitivity analysis
8
(3) Impact assessment
The purpose of the impact assessment is to convert and aggregate the inventory
analysis findings into the relevant environmental indicator. This can be explained as the
transformation of the inventory results into the number of contributions to
environmental impact categories (GWP, AP and EP).
Step 1: Classification
The impacts most commonly considered in LCA are:
 Resource depletion
 Global warming
 Ozone depletion
 Acidification
 Eutrophication
 Photochemical oxidant formation (photochemical smog)
 Human toxicity
 Aquatic toxicity
9
Step 2: Characterisation
Is a quantitative step to calculate the total environmental impacts of the burdens
estimated in inventory analysis. The impact Ek can be calculated by using Equation:
Where, eck,j represents the relative contribution of burden Bj to impact Ek, as
defined by the problem oriented approach.
Step 3: Normalisation
Normalizing impacts on the total emissions or extractions in a certain area over
a given period of time also can be carried out within the Impact Assessment phase.
Step 4: Valuation
Different environmental impacts are reduced to a single environmental impact
function, EI, as a measure of environmental performance. This can be represented by
Equation:
where wk is the relative importance of impact Ek.
(4) Improvement assessment
In the SETAC methodology, Improvement Assessment is the final phase of the
LCA methodology and is aimed at identifying the possibilities for improving the
environmental performance of the system. This phase can be carried out before an LCA
study is completed because the opportunities for improvements can be detected at an
early stage of carrying out the study. The redesign of the product or a process as a result
of the Improvement Assessment phase is not part of the LCA—it is one of its
applications.
10
In the ISO methodology this phase is known as Interpretation. The Interpretation
phase also is aimed at improvements and innovations, but in addition it covers the
following steps: identification of major burdens and impacts, identification of stages in
the life-cycle that contribute the most to these impacts, evaluation of these findings,
sensitivity analysis and final recommendations.
11
PART II: LCA OF BIO-PLASTIC STRAWS
2.1 Goal & Scope definition
2.1.1 Goal
There is a fierce debate going on regarding the environment and environmental
related issues. Most prominent is the use of single-use plastic products and the ways to
dispose of them at the end of their life cycle. This is mainly due to the limitations of our
current understanding of the potential burdens caused by the littering of plastic products
and the associated environmental impacts, especially the marine environment. Serious
problems related to the use of these products, more specifically, plastic straws are a
matter of great concern. To solve this problem, bio-plastic straws appear as an
alternative to current plastic straws.
The overall goal of analyzing bio-plastic straws' LCAs is to quantify and identify
the environmental impact of bio-plastic straws, to determine if bio-plastic straws are
really environmentally friendly and are a good solution to replace single-use plastic
straws.
2.1.2 Scope
Functional unit
To analyze the environmental impacts of bio-plastic straws, the data were
normalized to a functional unit of 100 units of drinking straws produced which were
equivalent to 133g of bio-plastic straws (given 1.33 g per straw). This functional unit is
consistent with the objectives of the study, which aims to evaluate the environmental
impact of bio-plastic straws from the manufacturing of the raw materials (gate) to their
end-of-life (grave).
System Boundaries
12
Figure 2. The system boundary of bio-plastic straws from gate to the grave.
This figure shows the bio-plastic straws system boundaries in the research. The
input and output data presented included each process that releases environmental
pollutants. The production process of bio-plastic straws consists of six main steps: corn
starch production, lactic acid production, bioplastic production, production of bio-
13
plastic straws, delivery to consumers, destruction, and transportation. Raw materials are
fed into the system. Meanwhile, the pollutants (CO, CO2, NOx, N2O, CH4, NH3, SO2,
and VOC) were considered as the outputs. The wastes are divided equally among three
different treatment methods (landfill, incineration, and composting). Furthermore, the
transportation of raw materials to the production site and transportation of the product
to the consumer and to the place of disposal was also considered.
2.2 Inventory analysis
2.2.1 Environmental burdens
Table 1. Process data inventory of section 1
Corn Starch Production (Section 1)
Selection/Process
Power
Corn
Germ
Fiber
Gluten
Starch
Steeping
Separation
Separation
Separation
Separation
1.7
9.8
5.2
4.0
5.3
Consumption
(kWh)
CO (g)
2.6 × 10-1 1.5
7.7 × 10-1
6.0 × 10-1
8.0 × 10-1
VOC (g)
3.0 × 10-2 1.7 × 10-1
8.9 × 10-2
6.9 × 10-2
9.2 × 10-2
CO2 (g)
1.1 × 103
6.3 × 103
3.4 × 103
2.6 × 103
3.5 × 103
NOx (g)
1.5
8.5
4.5
3.5
4.6
SO2 (g)
7.9
6.7
3.6
2.8
3.7
14
NH3 (g)
0.0
9.8 × 10-3
0.0
2.4 × 10-2
1.3 × 10-4
CH4 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Table 2. Process data inventory of section 2
Lactic Acid Production (Section 2)
Selection/Pr
ocess
Saccharific
ation
Starch
Fermenta
of tion
Microfiltra Acidifica
of tion
tion
Rotary Evaporat
Vacuu
Dextrose
m
into
Filtrati
Lactic
on
ion
Acid
Power
6.8 × 10-2
6.1
5.4
3.3 × 10-2 2.0
2.8 × 102
Consumptio
n (kWh)
CO (g)
1.0 × 10-2
9.2 × 10-1 8.0 × 10-1
5.0 × 10-3 3.0 × 4.2 × 1010-1
VOC (g)
1.2 × 10-3
1.1 × 10-1 9.3 × 10-2
5.7 × 10-3 3.4 × 4.9 × 1010-2
CO2 (g)
4.4 × 101
4.0 × 103
3.5 × 103
3
2.2 × 101
4
1.3 × 1.8 × 101
103
NOx (g)
5.9 × 10-2
5.3
4.7
2.9 × 10-2 1.7
2.5 × 102
15
SO2 (g)
4.7 × 10-2
4.2
2.3 × 10-2 1.4
3.7
2.0 × 102
NH3 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
CH4 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Table 3. Process data inventory of section 3
Polylactic Acid Production (Section 3)
Selection/Pro
cess
Condensat
Depolymeriza
Ring-
Crystallizat
Granulati
ion
tion
opening
ion
on
Polymerizat
ion
4.4 × 10-3
1.9 × 10-5
2.2 × 10-5
2.7 × 10-3
4.9 × 10-2
CO (g)
6.6 × 10-4
2.9 × 10-6
3.3 × 10-6
4.0 × 10-4
7.4 × 10-3
VOC (g)
7.7 × 10-5
3.3 × 10-7
3.8 × 10-7
4.6 × 10-5
8.5 × 10-4
CO2 (g)
2.9
1.2 × 10-2
1.4 × 10-2
1.7
3.2 × 101
NOx (g)
3.9 × 10-3
1.7 × 10-5
1.9 × 10-5
2.3 × 10-3
4.3 × 10-2
SO2 (g)
3.1 × 10-3
1.3 × 10-5
1.5 × 10-5
1.8 × 10-3
3.4 × 10-2
Power
Consumption
(kWh)
16
NH3 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
CH4 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Table 4. Process data inventory of section 4
PLA Straw Production (Section 4)
Selection/Process
Extrusion Injection Moulding Labelling Packaging
1.8 × 10-1 1.3 × 10-1
2.0 × 10-2 5.1 × 10-2
CO (g)
2.7 × 10-2 2.0 × 10-2
2.9 × 10-3 7.6 × 10-3
VOC (g)
3.1 × 10-3 2.3 × 10-3
3.4 × 10-4 8.8 × 10-4
CO2 (g)
1.2 × 102
1.3 × 101
NOx (g)
1.5 × 10-1 1.2 × 10-1
1.7 × 10-2 4.4 × 10-2
SO2 (g)
1.2 × 10-1 9.2 × 10-2
1.3 × 10-2 3.5 × 10-2
NH3 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
CH4 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Power Consumption
(kWh)
8.7 × 101
3.3 × 101
Table 5. Process data inventory of section 5
To Consumer and End of Life of PLA Straw (Section 5)
17
Selection/Process
Composting
Landfill
Incineration
Power Consumption
1.3 × 10-2
4.5 × 10-4
1.8 × 10-3
CO (g)
2.0 × 10-3
6.8 × 10-5
2.7 × 10-4
VOC (g)
2.3 × 10-4
7.8 × 10-6
3.1 × 10-5
CO2 (g)
2.4 × 101
2.0
1.9 × 101
NOx (g)
1.1 × 10-2
3.9 × 10-4
1.5 × 10-3
SO2 (g)
9.1 × 10-3
3.1 × 10-4
1.2 × 10-3
NH3 (g)
0.0
0.0
0.0
CH4 (g)
0.0
6.0 × 10-4
0.0
(kWh)
Table 6. Process data inventory of 5 sections
Selection/Process
Section
Section
Section
Section
Section
1
2
3
4
5
13.63
5.61
× 3.81
× 1.53
10-2
10-1
10-2
8.47
× 5.75
× 2.34
10-3
10-2
10-3
Power
Consumption
Total
× 40.08
26
(kWh)
CO (g)
3.93
2.03
× 6.03
18
VOC (g)
0.45
2.44
9.74
× 6.62
× 2.69
10-4
10-3
10-4
253
45
CO2 (g)
16.9
8840.44
36.63
NOx (g)
22.6
11.81
4.92
× 3.31
× 1.29
10-2
10-1
10-2
3.89
× 0.26
1.06
SO2 (g)
24.7
9.39
10-2
NH3 (g)
3.4 × 10- 0
0
0
9191.97
× 34.8
× 34.4
10-2
0
0
2
CH4 (g)
× 2.9
3.4 × 102
0
0
0
6.0 × 10- 6.0 × 104
4
The second stage of an LCA study is life-cycle inventory (LCI) analysis. It is the
most objective phase of the LCA process and represents a quantitative description of the
system. We would like to analyze the process of data inventory, allocate environmental
burdens, and the transportation process in this study.
19
(Table 6) summarizes the amount of emission from the five processes used to
produce bio-straws. Section 1 consumed the most power (26 kWh), followed by Section
2 (13.63 kWh).
In general, Section 1 and 2 are the two processes that cause the most pollution in
the environment.
Section 1 produces the most pollution with the highest emission such as CO, NOx,
SO2 when compared to other sections.
CO2 is the major emission during the production process, of which most is
emitted from section 2 with 8840 grams out of the total 9191, followed by NOx and SO2
gases.
In short, CO2, NOx and SO2 have the greatest contribution of emission during the
creation of bio-plastic straws.
According to the table A5.1 in chapter 5 – Life cycle assessment in the
“Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology” by James Clark, Duncan Macquarrie,
we define the emission into group of Environmental burdens:
Environmental
Global
Ozone
Acidification
Photochemical
Human
impacts
warming
depletion
potential
smog POCP
toxicity
potential
potential
(GWP)
Emission
VOC,
CO2, CH4
VOC
NOX,
NH3
SO2, VOC, CH4
CO,
NOX,
SO2,
NH3
20
2.2.2 Transportation process
Figure 3. Transportation detail for the overall process for bio-plastic straws from gate
to grave
According to the transportation process from gate to grave, after purchasing raw
corn from suppliers, the raw material was milled into corn starch and went through two
production processes: bio-straw and bio-plastic straw. The product would be completed
and delivered to consumers such as restaurants, Café, bars, malls, supermarkets or
Convenient stalls… As a result, bio-plastic straws are used only once, and various
disposal methods such as landfill, incineration and composting were evaluated. The
21
waste was divided equally among three different disposal methods, with each receiving
33% of the total.
It was assumed that a medium- and heavy-duty truck was employed throughout
the transportation of the raw materials and products. The truck emits CO2, CH4, and
N2O during the delivery process.
2.3 Impact Assessment
Step 1: Classification
The main environmental effects identified by the European Commission in the
Economics and Cross-Media Effects document includes global warming, acidification,
and eutrophication. [2]
Step 2: Characterisation
All the identified environmental potential indexes were evaluated using the
expressions summarized in Table 7. The main parameters used in the formula are the
mass (mi) in kilograms (kg) of a specific pollutant released to the air and pollutant
specific weighting factors (GWPi, APi and EPi). These factors are representative of
potential environmental effects per mass unit of the specific pollutant.
Table 7. Potential index definitions of the considered environmental effects and
respective units of measurement [2,3].
The specific weighting factor values for selected pollutants are listed in Table 8.
22
Table 8. List of specific weighting factors for the pollutants [2,3,4].
For instance, to calculate the GWP for Section 1 of bio-plastic straws production,
all the pollutants related to GWP were taken into the calculation, as shown in Table 9.
The total GWP of an individual process (such as corn steeping) can be calculated
(0.26×2 + 0.03× 3 + 1100)/1000 = 1.1). The total GWP of Section 1 is the summation
of the GWP of each individual process.
Table 10. Example illustration of calculation for environmental impact category versus
pollutants mass.
The generation of 1 MJ of electricity emits a specific amount of pollutants [5,6]
and further contributes to the GWP, AP and EP. The GWP is impacted by CO, CO2 and
VOC, while the AP is impacted by SO2 and NOx. The EP is impacted by NOx.
The transportation distances from the corn plantation site to the cornstarch
production site, corn starch production site to straw manufacturing plant, straw
manufacturing plant to consumer and, finally, consumer to the disposal site (i.e.,
23
incinerator, composting facility, and landfill) were taken into consideration. The Total
Distance of bio-plastic straws is tabulated in Table 11.
Table 11. Transportation distance for bio-plastic straws.
It was assumed that a medium- and heavy-duty truck was employed throughout
the transportation of the raw materials and products. The emission factors of the
transport used are shown in Table 12 to calculate the environmental impact based on the
total distances in Tables 9 and 10.
Table 12. Product transport emission factors [7].
Using the SimaPro8.5 LCA software, an impact assessment was performed for
the categories of global warming potential (GWP) (IPCC 2007 GWP 100a v1.03) and
cumulative energy demand (CED) (Cumulative Energy Demand v1.08). The major
contributing materials and processes to the energy demand and greenhouse gas
emissions for each straw type is summarized (in order of magnitude) in Tables 13 and
14 below.
24
Table 13. Major contributing materials for the energy demand of the
bioplastic/compostable plastic straw (functional unit equivalence); and
Table 14. Major contributing materials for the GWP of the bioplastic/compostable
plastic straw (functional unit equivalence)
Step 3: Normalisation
Some argue that because LCA is global in its character, total world annual
impacts should be used as the basis for normalisation. Total emissions of global
warming gases and world resource depletion can be calculated relatively easily;
however, other impacts, such as acidification or eutrophication, are more difficult to
determine on the global level so that normalisation still is not a reliable method for
comparing the different environmental impacts from a system.
Step 4: Valuation
25
2.4 Life cycle Interpretation
The final step of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is life cycle interpretation of the
whole process. The use of bioplastic straws can make a significant contribution to
serving natural resources, reducing energy consumption and minimizing the generation
of wastes. We modeled the life cycle of 100 bio-plastics straws. The majority of energy
use and related environmental impacts occurred before the use phase, but significant
toxicity impacts were generated from postconsumer handling, including both disposal
to landfill and recycling. Five environmental impacts were investigated like Global
warming potential (GWP), Ozone depletion potential, Acidification potential,
Photochemical smog POCP, Human toxicity are discussed in detail below. The impact
assessment results show that the highest environmental impact occurred during the
Lactic Acid production phase. The amount of CO2 in the whole process is at a huge
level (9191.97g).
26
PART III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Overall results of Bio-plastic
The disposal life-cycle stage had more impact on the product’s global warming
potential than its energy demand. The disposal of the used plastic straws and used
bioplastic straws to the landfill had minimal impact (less than 3.5%) on the overall
global warming potential of the products.
On one hand, plastics are known to have significant negative impacts on the
environment, especially when it comes to marine pollution. On the other hand,
bioplastics appear to be environmentally-friendly materials to their plastic counterparts
when their 28 origin and biodegradability are compared.
3.2 Recommendations
The GWP, AP, and EP of bio-plastic straws were successfully assessed using the
LCA and data from a process simulator. Corn starch production was found to have the
highest GWP, AP, and EP, which was attributed to energy-intensive processes such as
corn steeping and the separation of germ, fiber, gluten, and starch with lower
environmental burdens, small amounts of pollutants contributing to GWP, AP and EP.
Recognizing the negative consequences that plastic straws have on the
environment and on human health, researchers have developed a bio-plastic straws
alternative product line. The noteworthy feature is the quick decomposition time: The
biological straws produced will degrade into water, CO2, and humus after usage and
discharge into the environment, which is highly excellent for the soil and not hazardous
to the biological environment. When digested, this sort of humus can also be utilized as
an excellent green fertilizer. In the presence of a direct catalyst, full degradation can take
as little as 6-12 months. This is why bio straws are causing such a stir in the market.
Bio-plastic straws are also produced from safe materials that are entirely biodegradable
and created from corn starch, making them incredibly safe for users' health and having
less environmental impact.
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PART IV: CONCLUSION
This study has assessed the life cycle assessment of bioplastic straws through
four processes, which are goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and
life cycle interpretation. The impact categories have dominant contributions from
specific polluting emissions (particularly CO2 but also NOx and SO2) or resource
demands (water consumed in energy generation or fuel from trucks during delivery
process).
In conclusion, bio-plastic straws are made entirely of safe materials for human
health and eco-friendly. The product is completely decomposed into plant humus, water
and CO2 in industrial incubation conditions. Given that climate change is generally
regarded as the most challenging environmental issue of our time, this finding supports
the conclusion that bioplastic should be recommended over plastic straws and paper
straws from an environmental perspective.
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PART V: REFFERENCES
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