Packaging & Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Packaging is an often-studied LCA topic, either as part of a larger product system or by itself to enable a manufacturer to understand design trade-offs or communicate environmental performance. Improved packaging designs can potentially reduce the environmental impact of packaging, and LCA provides a means to quantify that performance on certain metrics. Environmental impact is of particular concern, as packaging is often perceived as waste by consumers and retailers. Many brands have begun to differentiate themselves by adopting packaging materials and systems that are perceived to be ‘environmentally-responsible’.

The life of packaging is outlined in below picture to illustrate what an LCA seeks to evaluate about packaging. In brief, packaging raw materials, such as plastic granulate, are produced from non-renewable, renewable, or recycled resources. These materials are subsequently converted to bottles, boxes, and other packages that are filled by a food or beverage processor. The packaged product is then distributed to retailers, who reuse the shipment packaging (i.e. secondary and tertiary packaging such as pallets or corrugate boxes) or send it out for recovery or disposal. In the case of reusable packaging, a cleaning step may be necessary to prepare the package for its subsequent use; otherwise, the use stage is typically not associated with packaging.

Consumers purchase the food or beverage contained within the primary packaging; at home, they prepare and consume the food or beverage and dispose this packaging.

Depending on the objectives of a particular analysis, LCAs of packaging can be conducted on the packaging itself, for example, to evaluate alternative packaging designs for a particular product—or include packaging as a part of a larger product system to understand the impacts of a product overall. Whether the packaging is for food, beverages, personal care products, or building materials, the challenges are often the same: how to minimize its environmental impact without compromising the product it is meant to support.

Evaluating this balance should be informed by sound scientific thinking. LCA provides a framework to guide the development of environmentally preferable packaging in this industry and ensure that companies consider not just the impacts of raw materials or manufacturing, but the entire packaging life cycle and how packaging can influence product losses.

Applying life cycle-based practices can ensure that environmental burdens are not simply transferred from one stage or component of the life cycle to another and offers a method for considering the role packaging plays in protecting and marketing the product.

Optimize efficiency and effectiveness of packaging, keeping the product at the forefront. The nature of the packaging supply chain is such that there may be a separation between the raw material provider, packaging converter, and food or beverage processor, which can lead to missed opportunities in the optimization of the collective package and product system. Designers aiming to develop packaging with reduced environmental burdens in this value chain, however, must resist the temptation to optimize only for materials, distribution, or end-of-life and instead address the full cradle-to-grave package and product life cycle as a way to differentiate the more environmentally sound alternative. Regardless of the material choices in packaging design, the product packaging with the highest environmental burden is one that is either under packaged, enabling breakage or theft, or over packaged, requiring more material, and therefore burden, than is necessary.

     

www.packonova.com