Environmental Sustainability Framework for Plastic Waste Management—a Case Study of Bubble Tea Industry in Malaysia

Economic growth and rapid industrialisation have led to enormous increase in municipal solid waste (MSW). Lack of waste management alternatives and ineffective waste policy implementation are the major challenges for government to materialise a sustainable solid waste management framework, especially for plastic waste. Booming of the food and beverage (F&B) industry has aggravated the situation by generating more plastic waste with no economic values. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the overall environmental performance of existing and alternative waste management technologies that are available in Malaysia based on net greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO(2)-eq) per tonne of plastic waste that are analysed through life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA result has proven that Scenario B (waste to energy (WTE) incineration) is more environmentally preferable as it had a negative net GHG emission of − 573.80 kg CO(2)-eq as compared to GHG emission of existing Scenario A (sanitary landfill) of 566.15 kg CO(2)-eq. Negative net GHG emission in WTE incineration was mainly due to higher GHG saving achieved through cleaner electricity generation as compared to conventional power production. This alternative technology was proven to have the potential to reduce the dependence on landfills and is served as the basis of environmental sustainability framework development for plastic waste management based on case study in Malaysia. This framework can be served as the baseline for the local authorities or policy makers for other plastic waste generation hotspots other than bubble tea industry to improve plastic waste management via WTE incineration.