As the use of chemicals in consumer and industrial products becomes increasingly prevalent, the management of these substances at the end-of-life (EoL) stage raises significant environmental and health concerns. Particularly during recycling, treatment, and disposal activities, there is a potential risk for environmental releases and human exposures. This presentation introduces a multi-scale computational framework designed to enhance Chemical Flow Analysis (CFA) at the EoL stage. By integrating data engineering, data-driven modeling, and process systems engineering (PSE) methods, this framework provides valuable insights into the EoL supply and management chain for plastic-related chemicals, using a specific chemical of concern as a case study.
Leveraging publicly available regulatory data, the framework identifies potential chemical redistributions, environmental releases, and exposure scenarios at EoL. The analysis reveals significant inter-EoL transfers, indicating that chemicals can transition between various EoL activities prior to disposal or reuse, with the potential for unintended existence in post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. Furthermore, the presence of co-occurring chemicals within EoL streams shows contamination risks in recycled materials and potential environmental releases during recycling and wastewater treatment processes.
Despite these insights, the study also highlights challenges posed by data limitations and variability in reporting, which can limit the accuracy of chemical tracking. To address these issues, it emphasizes the need for integrating facility, process, and equipment-level data to refine estimates of environmental releases and exposure assessments. Future research directions should focus on developing hybrid modeling approaches that converge top-down regulatory data with bottom-up process insights, alongside the application of graph-based methods for simulating EoL supply chains. By advancing data-driven CFA methodologies, this work aims to establish a science-based foundation for effective regulatory oversight and support the chemical industry sector to develop cost-effective innovative circular economy strategies.
