LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 3B: PACKAGING 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
The sensitivity analysis showed that the environmental impacts could increase from 2% (GWP) up to 5%
(AP) if the credits were disregarded.
4. Discussion
The closed-loop recycling procedure together with the expansion of system boundaries were used in order to
account for all the valuable products from this chain. The model used represents the real situation concerning
the production of roof tiles, recovered cellulose fibres, and also aluminium and paraffin recovered by plasma
technology. There are some uncertainties related to the credit of aluminium due to the production of roof
tiles and the paraffin substitution of the petrochemical naphtha.
The aluminium credit is not totally correct because the main competitor of post-consumer roof tile is cement
tile and not aluminium tile (the only inventory available). Paraffin is not a petrochemical naphta, but this
approach is a way to account for the reduction in the oil required for ethylene production.
The sensitivity analysis showed that recycling has a favorable environmental profile even without considering the
credit for co-products for a 27% recycling rate. In this recycling rate, the maximum increase in environmental impacts
analysed was 5%.
However, while the approach used does not represent the real situation and presents minor scientific uncertainties,
it is extremely important to find solutions for modelling recycling processes in order to account for
all the co-products from the chain. The existence of these co-products makes this reverse logistic chain economically
viable.
5. Conclusion
Based on the results of this study, it is possible to state: The increase in the process efficiency mainly due to
the modernisation of liquid packaging board manufacturing brought a reduction of 20% of total energy consumption
compared with the same functional units in 2000.
The increase in the recycling rate up to 70% could still bring about energy benefits even considering the consumption
of new natural resources and air/water emissions related to the logistic reverse chain.
A comparison of the years 2000 and 2011 shows that for the current recycling rate of 27% compared with no
recycling the following reductions could be observed: 23% in global warming, 8% in abiotic depletion, 13%
in acidification, 15% in photochemical ozone creation, 11% in human toxicity and 8% in eutrophication
measured by the functional unit of 1,000 litres of milk packaging.
The chain analysed in this study is not only a hypothetical model but also represents almost all the industrial
plants involved in this chain. This is the result of Tetra Pak efforts during the last two decades finding partners
who could implement these processes and to make the recovery of their post consumer packages an
economic, environmental and socially viable solution.
6. Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Tetra Pak by providing data and valuable discussions for this work. Authors are
also grateful for financial support of this company, to Fapesp who financed the first LCA study for CETEA
in 1998 and for the financial support of travelling expenses.
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