The price of resource consumption using the Ecopoint concept under consideration of regional differences

Abstract

Abstract The Ecopoint concept was developed to control the worldwide resource consumption. Resource shares are distributed to the world’s population and freely traded among individuals. The number of shares limit the amount of resources that can be used. In this work, the question is investigated how plastic production is affected by such a system under special consideration of local difference in the energy generation and way of goods transportation. The polymerization of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was modelled using a combination of the databases Ecoinvent 3.4 and Exiobase 2.2 for different feedstocks: fossil fuel in Brazil, the USA, and Germany; sugar cane in Brazil and India; maize in the USA; and grass in Switzerland. As a result, regional conditions have a strong impact on the resource consumption and the Ecopoint price. Using mainly fossil fuels for energy production increases the Ecopoint price by 30%. The combination of renewable energy and biomass as feedstock can significantly reduce the resource consumption. The resource consumption of the combination of fossil fuel for energy production and biomass as feedstock for HDPE is comparable to the use of renewable energy and fossil fuel as a feedstock. An Ecopoint price of 0.07 to 0.12 US$ would make HDPE from biomass competitive to such from fossil fuel.