The U.S. Department of Energy Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™️) consortium held a webinar titled, A Primer on Using Analysis to Guide Plastic Circularity on Oct. 16, 2024.
BOTTLE, funded by DOE’s Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office and Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), conducts analysis-guided R&D to change the way we recycle plastics. But what does analysis really mean? In this webinar, BOTTLE Analysis Co-Lead Dr. Taylor Uekert, a researcher with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), introduced key analysis techniques such as techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and environmental justice evaluation.
Relevant to both analysts and non-analysts, Dr. Uekert covered the basics of analysis techniques and discuss how these methods are conducted and interpreted. She provided examples from the BOTTLE portfolio demonstrating their use in benchmarking and optimizing the costs and environmental impacts of new innovations in plastic redesign and recycling. If you are working in the plastics recycling field—from experimental work to analysis to community-focused projects—you won’t want to miss this talk. The webinar ended with a Q&A session.