A comparative life cycle analysis of two different juice packages

Abstract

Packaging wastes have a portion of 12-15% in total municipal solid waste (MSW) in Turkey, and they have to be evaluated from production to final disposal from the environmental point of view. The concern about the environmental impacts of packages has been dealt with using several approaches in environmental management, such as risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, environmental auditing, energy analysis, material flow analysis, and life cycle analysis (LCA). The main purpose of this research was to investigate the life cycle environmental impact of glass bottles and beverage cartons. This LCA study was performed by using SimaPro7 (PRe Consultants, The Netherlands) software. Individual and comparative life cycle analysis of two packages was performed depending on a consumer who lives in Eskisehir city. For that aim, SimaPro7 was used, and the data to run the software was gathered from package producers, the database of the software, and the literature. Life cycle comparisons of the two juice packages among themselves and also within themselves were carried out by using EcoIndicator 99 on the basis of climate change, ecotoxicity, acidification/eutrophication, and fossil fuels. Sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of transportation. According to comparison figures, the environmental load of glass bottles is higher than beverage carton's load for all the impact categories. This result is also supported by the sensitivity analysis.