Integration of food shelf-life in life cycle assessment of polymers

Sammanfattning: Biopolymers are being considered as a promising alternative to fossil-based polymers and this inclination towards biopolymers is due to their lower environmental impact owing to their origin from renewable resources. The environmental impact assessment, however, often does not consider the impact of barrier properties of polymers and the resulting differences in food waste generated in the supply chain. The goal of this project is to develop a shelf-life estimation tool for estimating the shelf-life offered by PET, PLA, and PEF for liquid food. The estimated shelf-life is used to quantify the food waste in retail due to differences in the barrier properties of the polymers, which is then included in the LCA of these packaging materials. The data required to complete these steps were obtained from various scientific articles and reports. Based on the findings, the conclusion highlights the difference that including food waste can bring in the total environmental impact of packaging material. The project compares the LCA of PEF, PET and PLA. The results highlight that when fossil-based polymers, like PET, are recycled, their overall environmental impact, due to packaging, could be lower than some biopolymers like PLA. According to the findings and analyses of different studies, including food waste in packaging LCA would aid in the design and development of more sustainable packaging material. The project also concludes that, food waste can have an impact on the overall environmental performance of the packaging material and that using packaging materials that extend shelf life decreases the impact percentage. Thus, the relationship between increased shelf life and reduced food waste is demonstrated implicitly.