Purpose The importance of glass in the production of food packaging has stimulated the assessment of its impact. This study evaluates the environmental performance of hollow glass production in a manufacturing plant operating in Apulia (Italy), compares baseline and two alternative scenarios based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) method and proposes more environmentally friendly options. Methods The LCA study was performed on primary data provided by a company for 2017 and secondary data retrieved from databases. The LCA was conducted according to ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2018 with product category rule (PCR) basic module CPC 37. A midpoint approach was chosen. The software selected for the analysis was GaBi thinkstep AG version 8.7.0.18. The study was performed from cradle to grave, and the functional unit considered was 1 kg of finished hollow glass. Results and discussion A comparative analysis of the different scenarios was conducted considering seven environmental impact indicators. The results highlight major improvements in the environmental impact indicators: in particular, the replacement of raw materials with cullets would yield significant improvements if all of the cullets are recovered in the regional territory. These improvements, as confirmed by the results of Scenario 2, could be further increased both by the use of renewable energy such as photovoltaic (PV) energy and by technological improvements such as lightweighting. Conclusions Through the LCA, the authors quantified the potential environmental impact associated with the production of hollow glass, thereby identifying solutions and formulating suggestions to reduce the environmental impacts associated with food packaging. The evaluation of the different scenarios could help managers in the decision-making process, thus improving the environmental performance of both the process and final product.
Worldwide the environmental weight of the packaging has overtaken the threshold, both due to the waste and the emissions generated. This issue stimulated the European Union (EU) to provide for a stringent regulation to tackle this burden. Particularly, the consumption of mineral water packed is very significant, as regards the use of plastic bottles, especially in the small size, which stresses the need for a boosted management of packaging by the governments, industries and consumers (Botto et al. in Environ Sci Policy 14:388-395, 2011). Over the years, the EU has shown an increasing consumption of mineral water packed, and Italy, with 222 L per capita is the first European consumer country and the third worldwide. This chapter investigated the glass and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) packaging to analyse their environmental impact and undertake a comparison among them (Vellini and Savioli in Energy 34: [2137][2138][2139][2140][2141][2142][2143] 2009). Particularly the research provides a twofold analysis. Firstly, it assesses the impacts of 1 kg of hollow glass through the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (Schmitz et al. in Energy Policy 39:142-155, 2011;Vinci et al. in Trends in beverage packaging 16:105-133, 2019;) and makes a comparison with a 1 kg of PET ( Marathe KV, Chavan K, Nakhate P (2017) Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles-Indian Perspective. http://www.in-beverage.org/lca-pet/ICT%20Final%20Report%20on% 20LCA%20of%20PET%20Bottles_for%20PACE_01_01_2018.pdf. Accessed 2 March 2021). Secondly, the Greenhouse gas emissions of still water bottled based
Tourism plays a key role in development and in the economy redistribution, but also generates negative effects. Its impact concerns environmental pollution, increased demand for fossil fuels and energy intensity (Katircioglu, 2014). In the year 2015 there was a strategic turning point for global development and tourism, as governments of many countries have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their national development policies. The SDGs correspond to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. This research provides some indicators connected with the assessment of the sustainability of the tourism sector in some targets of 8 and 12 SDGs. This study aims to identify effects and opportunities for tourism industry on the economy at global level starting from an analysis in terms implementation of some sustainability tools in tourism industry at country level. Thus, we covered a structured methodological path that consists of an overview of the implementation of the measurement standards, particularly referring Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) and System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). This assessment, based on international standards, ensures the international comparability of values between countries and time periods. The results show that the tourism industry is receiving particular attention from countries, but there is a need for greater awareness at local level in the communication of the instruments implemented and the levels of sustainability achieved. This framework aims to become a structured instrument for private and public stakeholder who analyze tourism according to the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental).
At the general level, Capacity Building was implemented for improving the strengthening of the human resources capabilities in a Public Administration. This paper aims to highlights the significant role of the Capacity Building projects, as well advantages and disadvantages of them and provided a useful framework to design Capacity Building approaches for the Circular Economy (CE) at a meso scale.Particularly, since 2019, the Department of Economics, Management and Business Law of the University of Bari Aldo Moro, sited in Apulia (Southern Italy), set an active role in Capacity Building, through a partnership with the Agriculture Department of the Apulia Region, to provide a project for implementing Circular Economy in the Agri-food sector.We adopted a methodology based on a qualitative analysis to verify how the Capacity Building tool interacts with the research and reveal the underlying strategies applied on MoDEC, a project based on the relationship between university and institutional administration. Some provisional results highlight that the Capacity Building of this public department has been significantly strengthened in terms of the CE in a regional economy. The monitoring measures were undertaken through a bottom-up approach that involved various stakeholders of the agricultural supply chain.The approach applied in the MoDEC is replicable and allows the transfer of knowledge and good practices to widespread digital learning and a soft culture among stakeholders, creating a virtuous network to be implemented, not limited to the Circular Economy, within the macro-scale Mediterranean and the Euro-Asian corridor.
Since February 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has created a significant disruption of global markets with important effects on the personal, social, economic and professional lives of the people. The uncertainty and fear of the society, together with the severe limitations imposed on a global level, has made tourism one of the sectors most affected by the crisis, contributing significantly to the decrease in the consumption of products packaged in Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), which is widely used in the tourism-related activities. These issues, jointly with the heavy reduction of industrial production, led to an inevitable collapse in oil demand, which made virgin plastics cheaper than recycled ones.The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism sector, examining the consequences of this impact on the consumption of PET and R-PET (Recycled PET).The research methodology firstly involves an investigation of the scientific literature and data sector, comparing 2019 and 2020, in order to highlight the significant issues and changes, both in international arrivals and environmental effects, occurred in the global tourism during the pandemic period. Secondly, by analysing the trends of oil prices, an economic focus on PET and R-PET industry was carried out.A strong correlation was found between the collapse of the tourism market, a decrease in the price of oil, and consequently an increase in the use of virgin PET. This paper adds new insights on the distortive effects on the economics and environment, due to pandemic.Finally, the public health crisis represents a great opportunity to consider tourism holistically in terms of its effects on the environment and climate, but also on consumer and producer behaviours.
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