End-of-life of starch–polyvinyl alcohol biopolymers

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 (GWP100), 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 GWP100). 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.