Track: Energy and Resource Efficiency

Abstract

This project analyzes the patterns of consumption and production of waste by use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in a higher education institution, which represent a threat to the environment and due to excessive consumption have caused damage to the environment. habitat of many species. Among the main consumption habits were identified that, of a sample of 541 students, 88% use plastic bottles, 70% reuse them, 9.5% yield them for their subsequent recycling. The applied method was based on the geographical and climatic conditions of the city, as well as renewable and non-renewable elements of the product life cycle, as relevant results establishes the ecological footprint of PET as  global hectares For every 8000 students, as an index of degradation 0.7547 representing a decomposition time between 520 and 680 years, among the weekly resources used were identified 8068 liters of fuel, 48900 watts, used raw material 6.11 kilograms, 146.71 liters of water consumed for a total mass of 12.22 kilograms of PET with an average volume of 500 milliliters.