Energy and environmental assessment of plastic granule production from recycled greenhouse covering films in a circular economy perspective

Plastic fims can be considered as a high-value auxiliary material in agriculture with multiple important uses tofulfi, including covering fims in greenhouse cultivation system. Such an application enables several benefisand, therefore, it is going through an important upsurge, especially in regions where protected crop cultivation ishighly widespread. However, the increased demand for these covering fims arouses concerns for their post-usetreatment with regard to both the consumption of Non-Renewable Primary Energy (NRPE) resources and theemission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Therefore, environmental analysis is needed to fid and follow cleanerpaths for the management and treatment of this kind of Agricultural Plastic Waste (APW), especially in the lightof the gap currently existing in the specialised literature.In this context, this paper reports upon fidings from a combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of singleenvironmental issues (i.e., energy and water consumption, and GHG emissions) applied to a Sicilian fim,representative of APW collection and recycling to obtain Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) granules.The results showed that electricity consumption for the whole recycling process is the most NRPE resourcedemanding and the most GHG emitting input item. Moreover, the washing phase of disused covering fims is thehighest water demanding within the recycling process. Potential improvements could be achieved by shiftingfrom fossil energy source to renewable one. The installation of a wind power plant would lead to around 56% and85% reduction in NRPE resource exploitation and GHG emission, respectively. Finally, despite the huge consumption of water and NRPE resources and the resulting GHG emissions, the production of recycled-LDPEgranules is far more sustainable than the virgin counterpart.