Study on Delacquer Used Beverage Cans by Vacuum Pyrolysis for Recycle

J of Industrial Ecology

Olsen

Laurent

2017

Summary 11As part of the Cradle to Cradle ® (C2C) certification program, the C2C certification criterion 12 "Renewable Energy and Carbon Management" (RE&CM) focuses on use of electricity from RE 13 and direct greenhouse gas offsets in the manufacturing stage and to a limited extent on the cradle to 14 gate only at the highest level of certification. The aim of this study is to provide decision-makers 15 with a quantified overview of possible limitations of that C2C certification requirement and 16 potential gains by introducing a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) perspective to the scheme. 17Scenario analysis was used to perform an LCA of an aluminum can system representing different 18 levels of the C2C certification criterion RE&CM, considering different strategies to achieve 100% 19RE in the manufacturing stage. The adoption of a broader life cycle RE perspective was considered 20 through the implementation of electricity from renewable sources from cradle to grave. Our results 21show that compliance with the current RE&CM certification framework offers limited benefits, i.e. 22significant reduction for climate change but negligible reductions for other environmental impacts, 23 e.g. particulate matter and acidification. However, increasing the share of RE in the primary 24 aluminum production from a full life cycle perspective can greatly increase the environmental 25 benefits brought up by the C2C certification, not only for climate change, but for the broader range 26 of impact categories. In our striving towards environmental sustainability, which often cannot be 27 approximated by climate change impacts alone, we therefore recommend decision-makers in 28 industries to combine the C2C certification with LCA when they define strategies for the selection 29 of renewable energy and raw materials suppliers. With the current political and business emphasis on circular economy, defined as a restorative or 35 regenerative industrial system by intention and design (EMF 2013; EC 2015), the Cradle-to-Cradle ® 36(C2C) design framework has gained an increasing visibility in industry (Toxopeus et al. 2015). C2C 37 is a design framework oriented towards product quality and innovation, aiming to maximize the 38 overall benefits of products to ecological and economical systems by designing "eco-effective" 39 solutions. C2C relies on three key principles: "waste equal food", "use current solar income" and 71We build on the results of an existing LCA of aluminum beverage cans (termed "AlC system" in respectively. In the current study, we therefore consider different can systems including either

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewable Energy and Carbon Management in the Cradle‐to‐Cradle Certification: Limitations and Opportunities

J of Industrial Ecology

Olsen

Laurent

2017

“…However, the traditional delacquering is based on an energy‐intensive thermal process. The direct combustion of the paints results in the oxidation loss of aluminum as well as the generation of toxic gas containing dioxin and furan (Li and Qiu ). The current MRS formula only takes into account the possibility to recycle the material at least once after its initial use stage and, to a lesser extent, the recycled content.…”

Section: The Aluminum Can Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Eco‐Efficiency and Eco‐Effectiveness for Continuous Loop Beverage Packaging Systems: Lessons from the Carlsberg Circular Community

J of Industrial Ecology

Hauschild

Hoffmeyer

et al. 2017

Summary Eco‐efficiency (i.e., increasing value while reducing resource use and pollution) can with advantage be combined with eco‐effectiveness (i.e., maximizing the benefits to ecological and economical systems) to address the challenges posed by the circular economy in the design of circular industrial systems. We present a framework combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and the Cradle to Cradle® (C2C) certification program for the development of continuous loop packaging systems, which was conceived for aluminum cans in the context of the Carlsberg Circular Community. As a first step, the environmentally optimal beverage packaging life cycle scenario is identified, both in terms of defined use and reuse. Second, the limiting factors are identified for the continuous use of materials in multiple loops, meeting the two requirements in the C2C certification process that address the material level (i.e., “material health” and “material reutilization” criteria) and the “renewable energy” criterion. Then, alternative scenarios are built to meet C2C certification criteria, and LCA is used to quantify the environmental impacts of the resulting improvement strategies, for example, change in material composition, in order to guide the identification of the optimal scenario from an eco‐efficiency point of view. Finally, the business perspective is addressed by assessing the potential for a green value network business model for a closed‐loop supply. The outcome is a list of prioritized actions needed to implement the most efficient and effective “upcycling” strategy for the beverage packaging, both from an environmental and an economic point of view. In the case of the aluminum cans, the main recommendation from both the LCA and C2C perspective is to ensure a system that enables can‐to‐can recycling.

“…3.2% of the total weight of the finished can (Li and Qiu, 2013). Therefore the percentage of the product considered recyclable is 96.8% and was kept constant across all the scenarios compared in this case study.…”

Section: C2c Certification Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing the loop for aluminum cans: Life Cycle Assessment of progression in Cradle-to-Cradle certification levels

Journal of Cleaner Production

Negrelli

Hoffmeyer

et al. 2016

Despite their different scopes, both the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified TM Product Standard can support companies in the implementation of circular economy strategies. Considering the case of aluminium cans, the objectives of this paper are twofold: (i) to compare the environmental impact associated with different levels of two C2C certification requirements by using LCA; and (ii) to identify the main challenges and drawbacks in the combined use of LCA and C2C for packaging within the circular economy framework.Twenty different scenarios were developed and compared, according to three C2C certification levels, in terms of % renewable energy and % recycled content. The results show that increasing the recycled content provides more improvements to environmental impacts than increasing renewable energy usage.Furthermore, receiving a higher certification level does not necessarily mean environmental burden reduction in LCA sense.From a methodological point of view, the main challenge for LCA is to address the continuous loop of materials and account for the benefits from recycling in a consistent way. Meanwhile for C2C the challenge is to guarantee a proper translation of the C2C principles into the C2C certification program, avoiding burden shifting and to find a balance between the different certification requirements. Keywords