SUSTAINABILITY FROM START TO FINISH: THE LIFECYCLE IMPACTS OF PLASTIC PACKAGING

摘要

Sustainability is now a business fact, yet many of those asking for improvements to “sustainable packaging” lack the fundamental understanding needed to make the best possible business decisions. Scientific information is needed from production to end-of-life to determine what makes a package more “sustainable”. The 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) are often the first steps for many individuals and businesses on their journey to becoming more sustainable, although new “R’s” such as Renew and Recovery are appearing. Using science-based criteria can help improve the understanding of how plastic packaging contributes to a sustainable society. Plastic packaging can prevent spoilage and damage to food and other products during distribution and storage. Plastics are light weight and frequently require less raw material and energy than other materials used for packaging. Plastics can be recycled and recovered at their end-of-life. Significant progress has also been made in the development of bio-plastics, but there continues to be confusion as to what bio-plastics are and how to properly assess their environmental impact. Sustainability performance cannot be defined with a single attribute but must consider a product’s entire life cycle. This abstract/presentation will begin with examples demonstrating the sustainability benefits of plastic packaging, then define what bio-plastics are and why the diversity of bio-plastics and their varying properties make it difficult to make simple, generic assessments as to whether plastics made from traditional or renewable feedstocks are “good” or “bad”, and conclude with a discussion of end-of-life options for packaging, including recycle-to-energy.