Study on the life cycle of different types of packaging shows the positive effects of recycled plastic and kick-starts the campaign “Between 1 and 2 it’s YOU”

Mihai-Alexandru Cristea 05/08/2021 | 15:40

Committed to its sustainability policy and considering the vast expertise gathered within over 60 years since the company was founded, ALPLA launched the first high-profile LCA on the Romanian market. Life Cycle Assessment analyses the environmental effects that the complete life cycle of the packaging has, starting with the production, transportation, filling, distribution, up to recycling and energy recovery. LCA highlights the importance of plastic recycling and the low impact it has on the carbon footprint.

 

Based on the analysis conducted by Mr. Roland Fehringer, reusable PET bottles for water have outstanding performances, with the lowest values in terms of pollution (0.023mg particulates / PET), CO2 emission (137g / PET) and water consumption (0.76L / PET). Compared to PET bottles, the numbers for glass bottles are considerably higher as the CO2 emission is at 505g / bottle, air is polluted by 0.174 mg particulates and 2.95L of water is consumed during each glass bottle’s life cycle. Even though the numbers are slightly different, the same conclusion is true for food packaging, lemonade bottles and milk packs made of recycled plastic.

The production and recycling process of aluminum and glass packaging is higher in energy consumption too. Moreover, PET producers deliver preforms to bottlers saving thus space and reducing the weight of cargo vans which will have better fuel average consumption and will diminish their carbon footprint.

Looking at the data of both glass and single-use PET packaging, we will notice that the latter has the edge here, especially on the carbon footprint numbers. Totally unexpected, single use glass packaging has always the greatest negative effects on the environment, while the production and recycling of PET involves a small amount of resources and has the least polluting effect.

As the world leader in the development and production of innovative plastic packaging solutions we want to encourage and call attention to the benefits of recycling within the circular economy. We are a company with a strong commitment to sustainability and our support to reduce pollution all around us is one of our greatest wishes. The Life Cycle Assessment study outlines the wrong perception Romanian public has on plastic. The small scale at which recycling happens in Romania, as well as pollution with different types of packaging, make plastic one of the resources with a high impact on the environment. Between 1 and 2 it’s YOU is our awareness campaign aiming to educate the general public, highlighting the importance of recycling all materials and trying to convey the scientifically proven facts that recycled plastic has a very low impact on our natural environment because its’ production process leaves behind the smallest amount of CO2 and is only consuming a very limited quantity of water and energy. Our goal is to make use of all available resources as efficiently and as sustainable as possible.”, said Cristina Bogdan, Sustainability Manager.

 

The LCA study was conducted by the independent consulting company C-7 Consult in accordance to ISO 140044 for PET and other packaging materials and testing various beverages, foods and liquid detergents consumed and distributed through the food retail sector. Life Cycle Assessment consists of a very comprehensive analysis done on the 5 phasis of packaging life cycle except the production of their inside contents, the losses suffered during transportation and storage, water or energy consumption, CO2 emissions and distribution to the final consumer.

The study was commissioned by ALPLA in 13 countries with the scope of documenting and presenting the effect each type of packaging material has on the environment.

ALPLA, world leader in the development and production of innovative plastic packaging solutions, entered the Romanian market in 2011 by opening the first production facility in Bucharest. In 2017, ALPLA expanded to Timisoara and in the same year acquired the Star East Pet Romania company in Brasov. In 2018, ALPLA acquired Argo S.A. and developed its expertise in packaging production for the pharmaceutical and agro industry. Currently, more than 200 employees offer packaging solutions for various brands in different lines of business, both for domestic and international clients, through the annual production of over 1 billion preforms.

 

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