Avaliação do ciclo de vida de embalagens para delivery

Abstract

Delivery packages made up of different materials - expanded polystyrene, amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) and paperboard with a polypropylene lid - were compared regarding the environmental impacts related to their life cycles considering landfill disposal. In addition, three end-of-life scenarios for paperboard packaging were compared - landfill, industrial composting, and anaerobic digestion. These were evaluated according to the categories: damage to the environment (global warming, ozone depletion, eutrophication of fresh and marine water, terrestrial acidification, and terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecotoxicity), depletion of resources (water and fossil, and land use), and human health (human toxicity). For all indicators, the impacts were analyzed by each step of the life cycles: polymer resin production, paper packaging production, polymer processing, and end-of-life scenario. The LCA results showed that the amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) (APET) packaging had the greatest impacts for all categories - apart from land use, where paperboard had the greatest impact - with an important contribution from the production of PET resin for most of them. Polystyrene packaging had the best result in terms of ozone layer depletion, freshwater eutrophication, and water resource depletion indicators. Paperboard packaging obtained the best result for global warming, maritime eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, depletion of fossil resources, and terrestrial, maritime, and freshwater ecotoxicity indicators. As for the indicator of impact on human health, polystyrene and paperboard packaging had a similar performance. It was also found that for most indicators, disposal was the step with the lowest relative impact. Finally, the advantages and consequences of different end-of-life scenarios for paperboard packaging were explored, such as the generation of economically relevant products (such as fertilizer compost and biogas). For impacts such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, impact on human health, and marine and freshwater ecotoxicity, there was a noticeable positive impact of avoiding landfill disposal. For the impacts of marine and freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, depletion of water and fossil resources, land use and terrestrial ecotoxicity, the impact of alternative disposals presented an impact comparable to that of the disposal by landfill.