Environmental performance scenarios in the production of hollow glass containers for food packaging: an LCA approach

Abstract

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.

Introduction to the special issue “Sustainability Issues of Food Processing and Packaging: the Role of Life Cycle Assessment”

“…In their contributions, the authors explored relevant sustainability issues of food SCs, thereby enhancing the current state-of-the-art in the field. Most of them focussed upon packaging materials and technologies, as done by David et al (2020), Del , Gallucci et al (2020), Stefanini et al (2020), and Yang and Rosentrater (2020), whilst Bianchi et al (2020) and Sasaki et al (2021) investigated the entire SC of foods with particular attention on the packaging factors that influence their environmental profiles.…”

“…The field of hollow glass was investigated further by Gallucci et al (2020) who applied LCA to evaluate the environmental performance of hollow glass used for the packing of foods and beverages by comparing a baseline scenario with a set of alternatives that were based upon using renewable energy, light-weighting, and by increasing the cullet percentage. The baseline scenario provided a 32% cullet content and the Italian energy mix as energy carrier.…”

“…Two were then selected by the authors to be the alternative scenario: (1) increased cullet content up to 66% and (2) scenario 1 plus a 5% light-weighting and the use of a photovoltaic plant to supply 100% of the electricity requirements. The study allowed Gallucci et al (2020) to understand that scenario 2 is the most environmentally sustainable for all the midpoint indicators considered by the authors. Such a finding puts further evidence upon the benefits of increasing-to the possible limit-the use of recycled materials in replacement of the virgin counterparts in a CE perspective, and of using renewable carriers for supply of the process energy requirements.…”

“…Table 1 provides a summary of the characteristics of the articles reviewed in this section, in terms of system parameters, output products, system boundaries, functional units (FUs) and issues related to the impact assessment methodologies used All authors applied LCA according to the International Standards ISO 14040-44 (ISO 2006a, b), with Del Borghi et al (2020) and Gallucci et al (2020) following also the PCRs for the types of packaging product they have investigated. In line with the literature currently available on the subject, through this SI's paper collection, LCA was proven to be a holistic, scientifically valid tool to be largely suitable to assess-and to find measures to reduce-the environmental impact and damage in the packaging sector.…”

“…-Recipe Midpoint (H) 2016, by David et al (2020) and Stefanini et al (2020);and -CML 2001baseline 2016 and Gallucci et al (2020), as established by the PCRs. Differently, Yang and Rosentrater (2020) applied the TRACI method for the midpoint assessment and the Ecoindicator 99 for the endpoint one.…”