Environmental Footprints of Packaging

Abstract

The management of packaging materials and their interactions with the environment is central to international debate. The reasons are manifold: packaging is essential to guarantee the good quality of the products they contain; its production can require the significant use of natural resources; and consumers’ decisions are influenced by the environmental performances of packaging with particular reference to their management at the end of life. In this context, packaging companies has proved to be particularly interested in the application of environmental management and improvement tools such as life-cycle assessment. One of the latest developments of this methodology is its application at the organizational level, which was recently standardized in the ISO/TS 14072. Even if the interest around this topic is rapidly increasing and significant experiences are emerging (e.g., Organizational Environmental Footprint Programme of the European Union), no relevant applications have been published in the packaging sector. The objective of this chapter is to present the most relevant challenges in the application of the organizational life-cycle assessment for the packaging sector from the choice of the functional unit and the definition of the system boundaries to the choice on the aggregation approaches and the assessment of environmental impacts. Such issues will also be presented from a practical perspective presenting relevant case studies and lessoned learned in the beverage-packaging sector.