Application of LCA Method for Assessment of Environmental Impacts of a Polylactide (PLA) Bottle Shaping

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the consumption of single-use packaging. Their material diversity is a significant barrier to recycling, causing overloading of landfills. Increasing negative environmental aspects have highlighted the need to develop solutions to achieve a relatively high efficiency of the bottle shaping process with the lowest possible energy consumption. The aim of the project is to try to describe the impact of this process on the state, transformation and development of the natural environment. The work concerns current issues of the impact of packaging on the natural environment. The main goal was to conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) of beverage bottles made of polylactide. The functional unit comprised a total of 1000 pieces of PLA bottles with a capacity of 1 L. The boundary of the adopted system included the steps from the delivery of the preforms to the production plant to their correct formation in the process of forming beverage bottles. Further stages of the production process were excluded from the system, such as beverage bottling, labeling, and storage and distribution. Processes related to transport and storage of raw material were also excluded. The LCA analysis was performed using the program of the Dutch company Pre Consultants called SimaPro 8.4.0. The ReCiPe 2016 method was chosen for the interpretation of the quantity of emitted substances into the natural environment. The test results were presented graphically on bar charts and subjected to verification and interpretation.

Manufacturing and Recycling Impact on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Innovative Wind Power Plant Part 2/2

“…These elements include uranium (U), thorium (Th) and their numerous decomposition products, including radium (Ra) and radon (Rn). Although these elements are chemically less toxic than some other carbon components (such as arsenic, selenium, or mercury), there is a problem, due to the radiation risks [ 47 , 48 ]. The danger of ionizing radiation constitutes a serious risk to human health.…”

Managing the Uncertainty and Accuracy of Life Cycle Assessment Results for the Process of Beverage Bottle Moulding

“…This paper analyses the quality, uncertainty and sensitivity of data in the LCA of the PLA bottle moulding process. [ 55 ] presents a complete set of the system characterisation results. The uncertainty analyses were performed using relevant impact categories only (with the summarised share of 90% at least).…”

“…An indispensable element for the proposed procedure is the implementation of contribution analysis to determine the unit processes and categories of impacts with the largest share in the total impact of the PLA bottle shaping production cycle. The LCA of this process was presented in a previous work [ 55 ]. The uncertainty analysis involved input data and only relevant impact categories in damage areas.…”

“…This article aims to supplement the issues and knowledge about the environmental impact of the bottle shaping process presented in [ 55 ] by addressing the quality issues of the required data and the complexity of stochastic modeling for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, thereby offering a new life cycle assessment model not yet practiced by food sector companies in Poland. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose an evaluation method based on the use of the DQI semi-quantitative approach, stochastic modeling and sensitivity analysis to (1) analyze the uncertainty of beverage bottle production parameters, (2) analyze the uncertainty and accuracy of LCA results for the bottle shaping process and (3) recognize the effects of input parameters on the final results obtained.…”

Bio-Based and Biodegradable Plastics: From Passive Barrier to Active Packaging Behavior

“…To evaluate and measure the environmental impact of the processing, exploitation and disposal of biodegradable materials, in particular PLA bottles, Baldowska-Witos et al [ 9 ] have carefully assessed the life cycle analysis (LCA). At the initial stage, the authors collected technological data (see Table S1) covering rough resources, energy consumption, and emissions to the air, soil, and water.…”