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After functional phase, packaging becomes waste that is recycled or disposed of in landfills. Recently, numerus packages have been developed for assessing the packaging risk on the environment. We applied Gabi 4 Education software on polymer product packaging for meat products. The objective of first part of the paper was characterization of materials used for meat and meat products packaging in terms of mechanical and barrier properties. Results show that tested materials are able to keep protective atmosphere and contribute to the quality and sustainability of the product. Air permeability was 3.60 and 26.60 ml/m224h, and water vapor was 6.90 and 9.50 ml/m224h, respectively, for foils 1 and 2, as a result of different film composition. In second part, based on real data, Gabi 4 Education software is applied. The obtained results showed that organic compounds emissions have the highest impact on human health and the most damaging environmental impact observed was the emission of CO2

When deciding what packaging is the most appropriate for a product there are many factors to be considered. One of them is the impact of the packaging on environment. In this work, life cycle inventory and life cycle assessment of two different volume packagings were compared. The data were collected on the types and amounts of materials and energy consumption in the process of packaging and distribution of hand cream packed in polypropylene jars of 200 and 350 mL. Life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCA) were calculated. It was found that the total mass flow was higher for the jars of 350 mL. After analyzing individual flows, it was found that in both cycles (polypropylene jars of 200 and 350 mL),the consumption of fresh water was a dominant flow. This fresh water flow is mostly (95%) consumed in the injection molding process of manufacturing jars from polypropylene granules. The LCA analysis showed no significant difference in global warming potential between different volume jars. The process that mostly affected global warming was the production of polypropylene jars from polypropylene granules by injection molding for both jar volumes. Judging by the global warming potential, there is no difference of the environmental impact between investigated jars, but considering the mass flow and water consumption, more environmental friendly were the 200 mL jars