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A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials

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  • Daniel Maga

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Strasse 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany)

  • Markus Hiebel

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Strasse 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany)

  • Venkat Aryan

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Strasse 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany)

Abstract

In light of the debate on the circular economy, the EU strategy for plastics, and several national regulations, such as the German Packaging Act, polymeric foam materials as well as hybrid packaging (multilayered plastic) are now in focus. To understand the environmental impacts of various tray solutions for meat packaging, a comparative environmental assessment was conducted. As an environmental assessment method, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied following the ISO standards 14040/44. The nine packaging solutions investigated were: PS-based trays (extruded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene with five-layered structure containing ethylene vinyl alcohol), PET-based trays (recycled polyethylene terephthalate, with and without polyethylene layer, and amorphous polyethylene terephthalate), polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA). The scope of the LCA study included the production of the tray and the end-of-life stage. The production of meat, the filling of the tray with meat and the tray sealing were not taken into account. The results show that the PS-based trays, especially the mono material solutions made of extruded polystyrene (XPS), show the lowest environmental impact across all 12 impact categories except for resource depletion. Multilayer products exhibit higher environmental impacts. The LCA also shows that the end-of-life stage has an important influence on the environmental performance of trays. However, the production of the trays dominates the overall results. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis illustrates that, even if higher recycling rates were realised in the future, XPS based solutions would still outperform the rest from an environmental perspective.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Maga & Markus Hiebel & Venkat Aryan, 2019. "A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Meat Trays Made of Various Packaging Materials," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5324-:d:271063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Trevor Zink & Roland Geyer, 2017. "Circular Economy Rebound," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 593-602, June.
    2. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    3. Marie Kampmann Eriksen & Anders Damgaard & Alessio Boldrin & Thomas Fruergaard Astrup, 2019. "Quality Assessment and Circularity Potential of Recovery Systems for Household Plastic Waste," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 156-168, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Diana Reinales & David Zambrana-Vasquez & Aitana Saez-De-Guinoa, 2020. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Product Value Chains Under a Circular Economy Approach: A Case Study in the Plastic Packaging Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Deniz Turkcu & Nina Tura & Ville Ojanen, 2022. "A Conceptual Framework of the Sustainability Challenges Experienced during the Life Cycle of Biobased Packaging Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Rebecca Mort & Erin Peters & Greg Curtzwiler & Shan Jiang & Keith Vorst, 2022. "Biofillers Improved Compression Modulus of Extruded PLA Foams," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-12, May.
    4. Ana Fonseca & Edgar Ramalho & Ana Gouveia & Filipa Figueiredo & João Nunes, 2023. "Life Cycle Assessment of PLA Products: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Umair Tanveer & Shamaila Ishaq & Tifany Oqueli, 2023. "An Insight into the Application of Gradations of Circularity in the Food Packaging Industry: A Systematic Literature Review and a Multiple Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Markéta Šerešová & Vladimír Kočí, 2020. "Proposal of Package-to-Product Indicator for Carbon Footprint Assessment with Focus on the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    7. Luca Di Paolo & Simona Abbate & Eliseo Celani & Davide Di Battista & Giovanni Candeloro, 2022. "Carbon Footprint of Single-Use Plastic Items and Their Substitution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Macarena Beltran & Benny Tjahjono & Anna Bogush & Jorge Julião & Evandro L. S. Teixeira, 2021. "Food Plastic Packaging Transition towards Circular Bioeconomy: A Systematic Review of Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-24, April.

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