Calculate recycling or not?

Question

So I have a product with a recipe that has a production 1.000.000 kg net production. 300.000 kg of its is not good quality and goes to scrap and then recycled in order to be reused. So the final product that goes into packaging is 700.000 kg of product The recipe of this product consists of ingredients A-F for 70% and recycled product for the rest 30%. I want to calculate the emissions for this product for the A1 stadium first. The emissions will be x kg of ingredient/ 1 kg of product. Should I calculate the emissions of the recycled product that is the 30%? Additionaly The reference quantity of the product should be the 1.000.000 kg of product before scrap removal or the 700.000 kg of product after scrap removal?

Answer 1

Hi Giannis, just a thought - may be you can have two product systems. One for the 70% (probably recycle able) and another one for 30% (scrap). The ingredients can be the same, just update the amounts. Thanks

Answer 2

Hello Giannis,

In the A1 module (assuming you use EPD taxonomy) you will calculate the impacts from extraction of raw materials, and production of semi manufactured products. As you will need 1.000.000 kg into your production (A3), you need to model 1.000.000 kg in A1. The reference quantity in the A1 module will be 1.000.000 kg. The A3 module will have an input flow of 1.000.000 kg, and two output flows: one product stream for 700.000 kg, and one scrap flow for 300.000 kg.

Modelling the recycled material depends on your modelling choice. You should model according to the methodology choice (cut-off, APOS, consequential, etc.).

As Sjamil suggests, modelling the environmental impacts from 1 kg of recycled materials, and then using 300.000 kg of this material, in addition to 700.000 kg virgin, is a very clear and intuitive way to model. This will give a clear understanding of inputs and outputs.