PET Plastic Material Flow and Carbon Footprint in China 1997-2023

This dataset models the provincial production, consumption, and waste management of PET plastics for bottled water in China from 1997 to 2023, tracking material flows and carbon footprint. Annual production increased from 0.036 to 2.18 million tons over this period. It includes analyses of end-of-life treatment pathways and associated carbon offsets for 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in provincial production and consumption of PET plastics from 1997 to 2023.
• Model the carbon footprint and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions for PET bottled water packaging.
• Assess the efficiency of different end-of-life treatment pathways, such as downcycling to chemical fiber or closed-loop bottle-to-bottle recycling.
• Evaluate the impact of recycled materials on offsetting greenhouse gas emissions within the material flow system.
• Project future life cycle GHG emissions under different scenarios, such as the low-carbon scenario projecting to 2050.

Strengths

• Covers a 27-year time series from 1997 to 2023.
• Quantifies material flows with specific annual production figures, reaching 2.18 million tons in 2023.
• Provides detailed 2023 metrics including a 97% end-of-life recycling rate and 6.48 Mt CO2-eq life cycle GHG emissions.
• Includes provincial-level analysis of production, consumption, and waste management.

Limitations

• The dataset is small in file size (35.3 KB), indicating limited raw data or aggregated results.
• The analysis is specific to PET plastics for bottled water in China, limiting generalizability to other materials or geographies.
• Future projections (e.g., to 2050) are based on modeled scenarios and contain inherent uncertainties.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Yuan Tian.

Collection Method

Modeled provincial production, consumption, and waste management, tracking material flows and carbon footprint.

Time Range

1997 to 2023, with projections to 2050.

Freshness

Last updated in March 2026.

Geography

China, with provincial-level detail.