Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate

sustainability of packaging
Prof. Dr. Yvonne van der Meer | Chair Sustainability of Chemicals and
Materials | Scientific co-director AMIBM | 11 November 2020
Aachen Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials

Mission sustainability
team:
• to provide suitable
instruments and
accurate
sustainability
assessments of
materials
• to guide the
transition from a
fossil-based and
linear economy to a
sustainable biobased
and circular economy

www.amibm.org | www.amibm.de
 Renewable carbon key to a sustainable chemical and plastic industry

Greenhouse Gas Sci Technol. 10:488–505 (2020)

Source: Nova Institute
Research portfolio – Sustainability of Chemicals and Materials

Resources Production Materials End of life

• Supply chains • Catalysis (bio/chemo) • Biobased additives • Recycling systems
• Renewables • Process innovations • Design for recycling • Circularity indicators
• BIorefineries

biomass building blocks polymers materials applications end-of-life

Sustainability Assessment
• Life Cycle Assessment, Techno-economic Analysis, Life Cycle Costing, social LCA,
Indicators/frameworks: renewability, circularity, environmental
• Data acquisition: process modelling, data science concepts, industry projects
• Development of decision support tools: e.g. environmental/economic modelling,
early stage technology assessment. multi-criteria optimization
Biobased, circular, is it (more) sustainable? Life Cycle Assessment
• A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method to quantify the environmental impact of a product
• It is a standardized assessment method: ISO14040 (2006) & ISO 14044 (2006)
• Quantification (data driven) allows for comparison and improvement of environmental performance
• Methodological choices can be different (e.g. system boundaries, functional units): large variation in LCA results
• LCA-derived methods for economic and social impact: Life Cycle Costing & Social Life Cycle Assessment

Inputs
• energy
• mineral resources
• renewable resources

Outputs
• emissions to air
• emissions to water
• emissions to soil

adapted from: Hellweg and Milà i Canals, 2014

What we should know about LCAs of plastics
• Land use and land use change
often lacking (extraction of
fossil and mineral resources +
bio-based feedstock): models
for biobased feedstock
available, but uncertainty
issues
• Effects of terrestrial and
marine littering and the
subsequence effects on
ecosystems not yet included
• Fate of the used plastics: data
required on waste
management system, country
specific
Model of Dutch post-consumer plastic packaging recycling network
• Origins of the polymeric contaminants in recycled plastics determined; most contaminants originate from
packaging components and are hence design-related
• Model can be used to redesign the plastic recycling network towards a more circular economy

M.T. Brouwer et al., Waste Management 71 (2018) 62–8563

Environmental LCA of recycling scenarios PET bottles in NL
• With LCA results, environmental prices were
calculated to compare different options (CE
Delft. (2018). Environmental Prices Handbook
EU28 version)
• Excel tool developed for mass and energy
balance that can be used in future projects

P. Fleury (2020), Combining Material Circularity Indicator

and Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the environmental
impacts of recycling scenarios of PET bottles, Bachelor
Thesis, Maastricht Science Programme & AMIBM,
Maastricht University. Thesis supervised by
A.Ghannadzadeh (AMIBM) and Cris Garcia Saravia de
O.M. (AMIBM)
Environmental LCA of recycling scenarios PET bottles in NL:
Mechanical recycling vs. chemical recycling
• The majority of the environmental impacts were found to be caused by the collection and sorting of waste prior to
recycling, highlighting the importance of a systemic approach for the establishment of a circular system.
• Testing the model: assuming an equal energy requirement for chemical recycling and mechanical recycling, the
environmental price of mechanical recycling was found to be 52% higher than chemical recycling. To be continued!

P. Fleury, BSc. thesis, (2020)

 Recyclable Multilayer Food Packaging for a Circular Economy
• Project PACK-CE: Recyclable Multilayer Food
Packaging for a Circular Economy
• Aim: Accelerating the use of recyclable
multilayer food packaging for the transition
to a circular economy
• Role: Creating insight into the sustainability
of packaging through LCA: Chemical and
Mechanical Recycling
• LCA study with 3 scenarios
- PET-PE packaging, incineration with
energy recovery
• Dissolution technology for PE-PET packaging seems to have
- All-PE packaging, mechanical recycling lower environmental price than the reference incineration
with electricity generation
- PET-PE packaging, chemical recycling • To be continued!
PET with dissolution technology
 Post-consumer plastic packaging recycling system

Environmental Price Incineration Flow diagram of fate beverage carton after sorting for improved
Polymers in Mixed Plastic (DKR350) municipal solid waste recycling and incineration

Beverage Carton (DKR510) in tons

Left: incineration only

Right: incineration with electricity production
(avoided burden)

J. Schneider (2020), Material flow analysis and environmental sustainability assessment of a

post-consumer plastic packaging recycling system in The Netherlands: A focus on beverage
carton and mixed plastic, Bachelor Thesis, Maastricht Science Programme & AMIBM,
Maastricht University. Thesis supervised by A.Ghannadzadeh (AMIBM)
Important parameters in LCAs of food packaging

• Type of material, weight Example LCA PET bottle recycling (GHG emissions) in Japan/China
 Closed loop: recycling to new PET bottle
• Single or multi-use  Open loop: recycling to different PET product (clothes, etc.)
• Resources, transport  Waste disposal: incineration

• End-of life treatment

• Geographical context (energy, waste)
• Functional unit: recommendation to
include food impact in food
packaging LCA

• Recycling of materials: system

boundaries & modelling approach
important [cut off, system
expansion (avoided burden, product
basket approach)]
full life cycle | simplified system

Molina-Besch et al. Int J Life Cycle Assess (2019) 24:37–50

Nakatani, Sustainability 2014, 6, 6158-6169
Single-use plastic take-away food packaging and its alternatives, Recommendations from Life Cycle Assessments, UNEP, 2020
Circularity metrics: Framework with value retention strategies
• PhD Cris Garcia Saravia de O.M.

• Project: Circular Economy and

sustainability assessment of
(biobased) materials

• Activities
- Build and test a Circularity
Assessment Framework
- Perform Life Cycle Assessment
on study cases to understand the
impact of circular alternatives

• Partners: Emma Safety

Footwear

Cris Garcia Saravia de O.M. and Y. van der Meer, 2020, under review
Sustainability assessment: additives
• Project: Pure Nature, 100%
Biobased (BB100), www.bb100.eu

• Aim: Development of 100%

biobased man-made fibre
materials. Demonstrators with
companies

• Role: Sustainability assessment of

the developed materials/products
with LCA; focus on additives: often
neglected in LCA and important
role in circular ecnomy

• Additives: plasticizers, flame

retardants, colorants, nucleating P. Samani, Y. van der Meer , Journal of Cleaner Production 274
agents, etc. (2020) 1232592, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123259
 Goal

LCA of biodegradable plastics Social and natural enviroment

State of the Art

Social and natural enviroment Chemistry
Product
engineering

Product
Biology Chemistry
engineering Biology

Common
Value chain language &
methodology

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Industrial Doctorate program: Biobased Value Circle

• Full PhD project on LCA of biodegradable plastics (vacancy)
• Data collection & LCA case studies
• Comparison of recycling vs. biodegradation

www.biobased-valuecircle.eu
V Biobased
alue Circle
Online course: LCA: Basic principles and uses

5th edition: Spring 2021

More information and registration:
www.lcatraining.nl
Take home message: let’s make it circular & more sustainable!
• Tools available:
- KIDV tool ‘Five perspectives on sustainable packaging: detailed do’s and don’ts for 5 packaging
categories
- GaBi Packaging Calculator (LCA-based)
• Life Cycle Assessment, take care of critical aspects for circularity/recycling and be transparent on what the
result reflects, make use of LCA expertise!
• Circularity metrics can be useful tools for circularity next to/on top of LCA
• Design for circularity: screening of sustainability impact in an early stage

plastics
√

resource products
Thank you! We are open for collaboration!

• Yvonne.vanderMeer@maastrichtuniversity.nl
• https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/yvonne.vandermeer
• https://nl.linkedin.com/in/yvonnevandermeer
• https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/institutes/a
mibm/research/sustainability-materials