The Significance of Environmental Attributes as Indicators of the Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Packaging and Food Service Ware
- 3 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Environmental Science & Technology
- Vol. 54 (9), 5356-5364
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b07910
Abstract
The environmental impacts of packaging and food service ware (FSW) are increasingly the subject of government policy, public discourse, and industry commitments. While some consideration is given to reducing the impacts of packaging across its entire life cycle, most of the focus is on packaging waste or feedstock substitution. Efforts typically focus on specific packaging characteristics, or material attributes, commonly perceived to be environmentally preferable. This article summarizes an extensive meta-review of existing published literature that was performed to determine whether the material attributes recyclability, recycled content, compostability, and bio-based, commonly considered to be environmentally beneficial, correlate with lower net environmental impacts across the full life cycle of the packaging and FSW. Seventy-one unique life cycle assessment (LCA) studies that quantify the environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of packaging and FSW were analyzed. These studies included over 5,000 comparisons for 13 impact categories commonly analyzed in LCA studies. The results from the meta-review identified a number of instances where material attributes do not correlate with environmental benefits for packaging and FSW. Rather, other characteristics such as material choice or mass of the packaging/FSW products can have higher influence in determining life cycle impacts.Funding Information
- Department of Environmental Quality, State of Oregon
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Allocation strategies in comparative life cycle assessment for recycling: Considerations from case studiesResources, Conservation and Recycling, 2017
- Advanced Materials From Fungal Mycelium: Fabrication and Tuning of Physical PropertiesScientific Reports, 2017
- A Review of Public Policies relating to the Use of Environmental Labelling and Information Schemes (ELIS)OECD Environment Working Papers, 2016
- Evaluation of Life Cycle Assessment Recycling Allocation MethodsJournal of Industrial Ecology, 2013
- Sustainability assessments of bio-based polymersPolymer Degradation and Stability, 2013
- Design of a sustainable packaging in the food sector by applying LCAThe International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2013
- Packing materials grown from mushroomsNew Scientist, 2013
- Biopolymer from industrial residues: Life cycle assessment of poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from wheyResources, Conservation and Recycling, 2013
- Life Cycle Assessment HandbookPublished by Wiley ,2012
- A life cycle assessment of biopolymer production from material recovery facility residualsResources, Conservation and Recycling, 2012