A number of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) undertaken by EAFA, the European Aluminium Foil Association, have been used in a new in-depth report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aimed at understanding best practice in using LCA as an assessment tool for packaging.
According to EAFA, the report – produced under the Life Cycle Initiative, a joint organisation of UNEP and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) – summarises the results of a project designed to consolidate outcomes of existing research on the environmental performance of packaging, namely LCA studies, in order to demonstrate the value of applying LCAs to evaluate environmental impacts for food and beverage packaging.
EAFA executive director Stefan Glimm says: “We are extremely proud that eight of the LCA studies EAFA has undertaken over the last five years were considered good enough to be included as examples of best practice by the UNEP/SETAC team for inclusion in this project.
“We strongly believe in the values of including all life cycle stages because it prevents the decision maker from inadvertently shifting the environmental burdens from one stage to another. It also ensures that potential impacts at all stages of the life cycle are accounted for.”
The proven barrier properties of aluminium foil against light, gas, moisture and odours help to achieve extended shelf-life and improved ambient shelf performance in food and beverage packaging developments.
The UNEP report is said to show that when conducting a life cycle assessment on food and beverage packaging, it is important to consider the full cradle-to-grave impact of the packaging system in order to ensure the analysis accounts for all potential system impacts.
“Omitting one or more life cycle stages can potentially lead to the selection of a package design that appears to have the lowest impact, but is associated with the highest burden when the full cradle-to-grave LCA is evaluated,” EAFA says.
“The fact that the study conclusions are recognised and endorsed by UNEP really adds to their credibility,” says Glimm.
