Circular Economy Approach in the Paints and Coatings Industry

1. Green Deal and Circular Economy Relationship The European Union implemented the "EU Green Deal" on 19 December 2019, establishing a roadmap to minimize climate change and environmental damage while generating greater economic benefits. At the 2020 World Economic Forum annual meeting, the question "how can the transition of businesses to circular economy (industrial sustainability) be accelerated" was discussed and recommendations were presented, initiating the transition process to circular economy. The prepared Circular Economy Handbook contains numerous strategies, practical insights and case studies. The relationship between circular economy and the Green Deal is given in Figure 1. From January 2021 onwards, TÜBİTAK has applied bonus points to ARDEB and TEYDEB project proposals related to the Green Deal (industrial sustainability) in order to encourage existing industrial establishments in our country to produce in accordance with European Green Deal standards, and has included these subjects in priority areas. The Green Deal not only regulates activities within EU borders, but also designs a set of customs regulations that will be calculated based on the carbon intensity of traded products in order to protect the competitive strength of EU producers (1). Following the Glasgow Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in October-November 2021, the Glasgow Climate Pact was published. It was decided that organizations should implement Green Deal application activities in three scopes, and that each company must have complete, consistent, transparent and realistic greenhouse gas (carbon footprint) reports (Table 1), and all companies are obliged to comply with Green Deal rules based on CDP (Carbon Disclosure Footprint) and SBT (Science Based Targets). At the same time, importer companies operating within the European Union have been made subject to the obligation to comply with the Green Deal, thus all companies exporting to Europe must comply with the Green Deal and publish their greenhouse gas (carbon footprint) reports accurately and realistically (2,3). The most important shortcoming in adapting to Green Deal and circular economy processes worldwide is that the standards for these processes are not yet clearly defined. With the establishment of standards, the need for expert personnel who could play a role in ensuring the process works properly will be another major deficiency. [caption id="attachment_132479" align="aligncenter"] Figure 1. The relationship between industrial symbiosis, circular economy and sustainability (1)[/caption] In particular, to contribute to addressing this need, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali Üniversitesi has applied for a postgraduate program in "Industrial Sustainability". This program will cover candidates with bachelor's degrees from many different fields (engineering, basic sciences, social sciences, health sciences) who work in industry and wish to specialize in this field. [caption id="attachment_132482" align="aligncenter"] Table 1. Carbon footprint reporting scopes[/caption]

2. Life Cycle Assessment in the Paints Industry

In recent years, the paints industry has focused on developing products, technologies and packaging to create conditions that will improve environmental performance in line with circular economy objectives. Since the multiple compositions of paints affect the environment and human health in different ways, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is currently the most useful tool for evaluating the environmental performance of paints. Circular economy (CE) addresses minimizing the environmental impact of production stages. Although the impact of paint production is high, the films they create protect the substrate and slow decay, thereby allowing them to reduce environmental impact. In light of circular economy, the need for a multidisciplinary approach that can identify environmental priorities and analyze the life cycle of a chemical has emerged, accelerating the development of sustainable practices and actions such as the recycling of paints and coatings, the conversion of waste to design new products in waste materials or finding alternative raw material sources. Over the last decade, the original concept of sustainability in the paints industry has shifted from analyzing sustainability factors for paints such as the reduction of toxic components and the industry's transition from solvent-based to water-based to focus on the entire value chain of components and individual products. Another important step was researching ways to produce paint by replacing raw materials with recycled materials. Furthermore, paint packaging is also considered when evaluating the environmental performance of the chemical sector. There is still limited scientific literature on multidisciplinary and structural approaches to sustainable improvements in paints, particularly in waste paint usage. There is limited scientific literature and research on paint packaging. Although packaging is rarely studied in the paints sector, it is economically very important. By concentrating on scientifically-based research in the industry, added value can be easily created and profitability increased depending on the development of the existing basic production cycle in the short and medium term. In some European countries, "green paints" and "bio-paints" were developed in 2018. Since information about these paints is very limited, research continues. Paiano et al. in their 2021 study evaluated two important strategies for the paints industry: a) finding alternative raw material sources of organic origin instead of raw materials such as TiO2 or chemical additives used in wall paint formulation; b) converting waste paint into new paint products. Literature information for both items is very limited. In the study conducted, for the two selected paints, the environmental impacts of the existing production life cycle were evaluated and, based on the results obtained, certain alternatives were recommended and the stages/modules with the greatest impact were identified in order to create a more sustainable production cycle. The LCA study was carried out in accordance with ISO 14040:2006 (environmental management - life cycle assessment - principles and framework) and ISO 14044:2006 (environmental management - life cycle assessment - requirements and guidelines). 1 kg was accepted as the functional unit. The service life of paints was determined as 50 years depending on the product warranty period. Ecoinvent 3.5 and GaBi ts (Version 8.7.0.18) software were used for data processing and analysis to conduct life cycle assessment of paints. The system boundaries of the life cycle stages of paint production were divided and analyzed into modules A1, A2 and A3 according to EN 15804 (Figure 2). In modules A1 and A2, referring to alternative scenarios, waste paints and their transportation are shown with dashed lines. [caption id="attachment_132484" align="aligncenter"] Figure 2. System boundary of life cycle stages of paint production[/caption] Module A1 represents raw material production, supply and its own energy generation. Module A2 relates to the transportation of raw materials to the production site by ship and road, and the distribution of raw materials by forklifts. Module A3 relates to electricity and water consumption in the use of all raw materials in the production process. This module reports the use of all raw materials in the process, electricity and water consumption. In addition to alternative packaging for scenarios A and B (50% PP (Polypropylene) and Al (Aluminum)), this module also includes PP packaging production. Unlike the complexity of the production, supply and transportation of raw materials (modules A1 and A2), the paint production process at the facility in module A3 is straightforward. It takes place in batches and the main stages are resin preparation, dispersion, testing and packaging. In the study, firstly, a comparison of two paints characterized by different chemical compositions was made according to the existing production cycle (baseline scenario). Secondly, two additional and alternative scenario hypotheses were created for each product. These scenarios focus on the use of waste paint mixed with virgin paint and the use of high-recycled packaging material inputs. One of the objectives is to first evaluate the environmental impacts of the life cycles of paints and present applicable measures to reduce these impacts. The other objective is to determine the better option between scenarios according to the circular economy approach. The results emphasize that raw material production and supply have the greatest impact on both paints for all impact indicators. As a result, the use of waste paint reduces environmental impacts by an average of approximately 48%. Furthermore, packaging options allow us to determine that although the contribution of packaging to total impact indicators is negligible, 50% recycled polypropylene use has better environmental performance than 100% recycled aluminum. Sensitivity analysis on waste paint usage was also conducted by validating the results (4).

3. Other Studies

Different studies are ongoing worldwide to recover waste paints. AkzoNobel, using paints remaining in waste paint containers, first put Dulux Trade Evolve Matt, a recycled paint produced from 35% recycled paint, on the market in October 2019 (5). In the UK, 55 million liters of waste decorative paint is generated each year. Only 2% of the remaining paint is reused. The estimated cost to local government of disposing of waste paint each year is GBP 20.6 million (6). Regent Paints, Inc., through a process they developed to evaluate unused paints collected from residential, warehouse and industrial sources, enables these paints to be brought back into the economy by mixing them with unused white-matte paints in certain proportions.

References

1- Balbay, S., Sarihan, A., Avsar, E., "Circular Economy / Industrial Sustainability" Approach in the World and in Turkey, European Journal of Science and Technology, 2021, (27), 557-569.

2- Outcomes of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference - Advance Unedited Versions (AUVs) and list of submissions from the sessions in Glasgow, October-November 2021

3- Klaaßen, L., Stoll, C., Harmonizing corporate carbon footprints, Nature Communications, 2021, 12:6149 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26349-x

4- Paiano, A., Gallucci, T., Pontrandolfo, A., Lagioia, G., Piccinno, P., Lacalamita, A., Sustainable options for paints through a life cycle assessment method, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021, 295, 126464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126464

5- https://www.duluxtradepaintexpert.co.uk/en/content/evolve

6- Priestley, S., Baker, J., Circular economy for leftover paint, Number CDP-2016/0210, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2016-0210/

 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şenay Balbay Bilecik Şeyh Edebali Üniversitesi Vocational School Department of Environmental Protection Technologies