Life cycle analysis of the economic costs and environmental benefits of photovoltaic module waste recycling in China

China will face great challenges related to PV waste in the coming decades. Mechanical recycling (MR), chemical recycling (CR), and thermal recycling (TR) are widely regarded as future technologies for PV recycling; however, knowledge about their costs and benefits remains unexplored in China. In this study, the costs and benefits of these technologies are comprehensively assessed and compared using a life cycle assessment (LCA). The results showed that MR, CR, and TR had the smallest amounts of life-cycle energy use (-28,949 MJ/ton), industrial water use (-65,069 kg/ton), and global warming potential (-5525 kg CO2 eq/ton), respectively. To date, cost benefit analyses have demonstrated PV recycling was expensive. Overall, all three PV-recycling technologies show superior environmental and economic performance compared with landfilling. Scenario analysis showed that improvements in technology, expansion of the recycling scale, reducing transport distances, and subsidization are all effective measures for enhancing the total benefits of PV waste recycling.