From particles to patterns: do settlement structure and seasonality impact the composition of lightweight packaging waste?

Detailed knowledge of feedstock composition and waste generation is essential for achieving high-quality recycling. However, this knowledge is lacking for lightweight plastic waste (LWP). Over a year, we drew LWP samples every two months in an urban, an intermediate, and a rural area (total: 1,110 kg), characterized each LWP-object according to recycling-relevant properties, and evaluated the resulting dataset of 55,197 LWP-objects for influences of settlement structure and season. Results show that the settlement structure strongly influenced collected amounts of LWP expressed in dry weights per capita, with the lowest values in urban areas and the highest in rural areas. Seasonal influences on LWP collection were weaker, peaking in spring and summer for LDPE, PET, and food packaging, and in winter for non-targeted objects. The results support improved planning of sampling campaigns for LWP and enhance the performance of LWP processing through a better understanding of waste collection and composition.