The Impacts of Packaging on the Environment

1
The Impacts of Packaging on the Environment

• Birgitte Kjær, Ph.D.
• Household Waste Division

2
Packaging Waste in relation to the Total Waste
Production

• Packaging waste 1 mill. tons in 1999
• Total waste 12.2 mill. tons in 1999
• 8 of total waste
• 192 kg packaging waste per inhabitant per year

3
High attention to packaging

• Visible
• All consumers take care of packaging waste each
  day
• 30 of domestic waste by weight
• gt 50 of domestic waste by volume

4
The Impacts of Packaging on the Environment

• Packaging is short-lived
• Consumes global resources
• Especially Raw material and energy

5
Environmental objective

• Aim Consumption of packaging causes the least
  possible burden to environment.
• Methods
• Reduce the weight of packaging
• Substitution to materials with less environmental
  impact.
• Promote reuse and refill systems

6
Life-cycle screening of 11 packaging materials

• Life-cycle screening only the most important
  environmental impacts and phases in the packaging
  life cycle (from cradle to grave) are included
• Environmental impact of packaging materials
  http//www.mst.dk/homepage/default.asp?Subhttp//
  www.mst.dk/waste/Packagings.htm

7
Life-cycle screening of 11 packaging materials

• Not possible to add all impacts with respect to
  the environment, resources and waste, into a
  single figure.Thus, it is necessary to make some
  political choices
• Operational unit 1 kg of packaging

8
The life-cycle of packaging

• Included in the life-cycle screening
• Extraction of raw material
• Production of material
• Production of packaging
• Distribution - (calculated later)
• Waste disposal
• Not included in the life-cycle screening
• Use of the packaging

9
Materials in the survey

• Paper/cardboard
• Glass
• Tinplate/steel
• Aluminium

• Plastic
• HDPE
• LDPE
• PP
• PET
• PVC
• EPS
• PS

10
Assumptions

• Sales packaging
• Waste disposal as the present situation in
  Denmark today
• Glass packaging 70 recycling (separate
  collection)
• Steel packaging 64 recycling (separated from
  incineration slag)
• Paper, plastic,aluminium incineration with energy
  recovery (no separate collection)

11
How are the results expressed?

• Basis a politically determined environmental
  space.
• Environmental effects and waste possible
  emission per person if the political objectives
  are to be met in the year 2000.
  Unit mPEMWDK2000.
• Resource consumption the share of known
  reserves per person in the world in 1990. Unit
  mPRW90.

12
Global warmingPrimary materials
13
AcidificationPrimary materials
14
Resources Crude oilPrimary materials
15
WastePrimary materials
16
Primary materials ltgt recyclingGlobal warming
LDPE and Aluminium
17
Presentation of the environmental impact from
packagingOverall assessment

• Some general outlines per kg material
• Cardboard and glass lowest environmental impact
• Some plastic materials (LDPE, HDPE, PP, PET, PS)
  prove to have higher environmental impacts than
  cardboard and glass. PS and PET have the highest
  impact in this group.
• Steel some indicators ranking similar to
  plastics but with major negative impact on the
  environment due to waste.
• Major environmental impacts originate from PVC,
  EPS and aluminium.

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Environmental index
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No-one has opposed the overall ranking of the
materials

• After the consultation process none of the
  parties had opposed to the overall assessment -
  the ranking of materials - of the LCA study.
• LCA experts have supported the ranking of the
  packaging materials - because it is in line with
  other studies.

20
Objection All results are given per kg
packaging

• One objective of the tax is to reduce the total
  amount of packaging waste.
• In a LCA it is the use value of one product that
  is being compared to the use value of another
  product.
• The use value of packaging is not one kg material
  - but the 34 grams of plastic used to produce a
  bottle. This plastic bottle can then be compared
  to another bottle of glass of 290 grams

21
Life cycle assessment of packaging systems

• Life cycle assessment of packaging systems for
  beer and soft drinks
• Published May 1998
• Main report and 7 technical reports

22
Packaging types
Packaging system Beer Soft drinks Refillable
glass bottle 33 cl green glass 25 cl clear
glass Single-use glass bottle 33 cl green
glass 33 cl clear glass Aluminium cans 33 cl
and 50 cl 33 cl and 50 cl Steel cans 33 cl
and 50 cl 33 cl and 50 cl Refillable PET
bottle 50 cl and 150 cl Single-use PET
bottle 50 cl and 150 cl
23
Main environmental impacts

• final energy consumption
• consumption of natural resources
• global warming
• photochemical ozone formation
• acidification
• nutrient enrichment
• waste

24
33 cl packages for beer
25
50 cl packages for soft drinks
26
Conclusion

• Environmental effects from packaging
• Mainly use of raw material and energy resources
• Impact on environment can be assessed
• Complex
• Used in making political decisions