www.unescochair.es
UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change
PACKAGING LIFE CYCLE RESEARCH Approximately 35% in weight of municipal waste is packaging waste and it is also increasing every year. Packaging
waste is one of the fractions of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to which greater attention is due, because of a number of aspects, among which:
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high recovery potential; large associated energy and raw material consumption; often complex logistics of collection and transport, partly caused by the low-density of many packaging wastes (plastic household packaging, empty tins, cartons and paper and cardboard); different options for final treatment (incineration, recycling or landfill), which largely determine the ultimate impact on the environment and the possibility or not to recover materials which may be used again to manufacture packaging or other products.
To obtain raw materials from waste recycling, it is necessary to collect, transport, classify and finally process waste, which also implies the consumption of water, energy and additional materials. Thus, it is necessary to make a balance and check whether the
environmental benefits of selective collection and recycling are greater than the impacts generated (in terms of resource consumption and pollution) during those same processes. The orientation of European policy on waste packaging management is changing towards a perspective of their whole life cycle, or “life cycle thinking”. The current policy refers to both the generation and treatment of wastes, and puts special emphasis on prevention strategies, such as promoting eco-design or minimizing the consumption of natural resources. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well known and objective tool for environmental analysis of products and services which helps to apply “life cycle thinking”. LCA could be used to compare different waste treatment options or to compare different stages of the process (containers production, transport, recycling, landfilling…). This methodology allows to determine which stages are the most environmentally harmful and to balance the benefits of the recycling activity against the impacts associated to the collection and transportation phases, for instance.
PACKAGING LIFE CYCLE OBSERVATORY The Green Dot Observatory on Packaging Life Cycle aims to collect, generate and disseminate scientific information on the sustainability of packaging throughout its life cycle, helping social debate and business innovation. Directed by the UNESCO Chair, ECOEMBES and Sociedade Ponto Verde, it also counts with the collaboration of different universities and technology centers in Spain and Portugal. As stated in its statutes, it automatically became part of the UNESCO Chair’s structure when the agreement between UNESCO and ESCI-UPF was signed.
FENIX - Giving Packaging a New Life (2009-2012) “Finding regional ENvironmental life cycle assessment Information on packaging waste management through fleXible software tools and databases”
CICLOPLAST (2008) “Life Cycle Analysis of different supermarket bags”
FENIX is a LIFE+ funded project which main aim is to assist municipalities and other territorial organisations in Spain and Portugal to look for more eco-efficient and sustainable solutions for packaging waste management, according to the European policy principles on waste management. The FENIX project aims at developing a flexible and easy-to-use software tool to be used by Spanish and Portuguese municipalities and other territorial organisations, to obtain LCA results for packaging waste management, integrating environmental, economic and social aspects. The tool will allow the different users to introduce and modify parameters (km travelled, selection between different collection and treatment options, plant efficiency, etc.) to adapt the models created in the tool to their real-life situations.
The aim of the project was to analyse the environmental impacts of different supermarket bags throughout their life cycle (production, use and end of life). The outcomes of the project were used to identify the most environmentally friendly product, and to identify those processes that can be improved in the production phase.
Environmental feasibility of implementing a selective collection system of packaging waste in towns of less than 50 inhabitants in Spain (2010) The main objective of this project was to develop a mathematical model created specifically to help decision making on the appropriatness of extending the collection of light packaging paper and cardboard in scattered villages of Spain.
Contact UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change Escola Superior de Comerç InternacionalUniversitat Pompeu Fabra (ESCI-UPF) Passeig Pujades 1, E-08003 Barcelona, España Tel. (+34) 93 295 4710 Fax. (+34) 93 295 4720 unescochair@esci.es www.unescochair.esci.es www.giga.cat
HAproWINE - Integrated Waste Management and Life Cycle Assessment in the wine industry (2010-2013) “From waste to high-value products”
HAproWINE is a European LIFE+ funded project which main objective is to contribute to sustainable development within the wine sector in the Autonomous Region of Castilla y León, in Spain. One of the objectives of HAprowine is to identify and promote the synthesis of high added-value compounds that can be obtained from the different wine waste streams. As a result, tests are being undertaken by the partnership to extract biopolymers from wine waste.
Dr. Pere Fullana
Alba Bala
Director
Head of Research Line
is Spanish delegate for the ISO 14000 series of standards and the European Standard Technical Committee CEN/ TC 261/SC4 “Packaging and LCA”. He is editor for the International Journal of LCA (IJLCA), former Chair of the SETAC Europe LCA Steering Committee and member of the International Life Cycle Board of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. He is the Director of the Packaging Life Cycle Observatory and he has recently taken part as member in the development of the GHG Protocol Product Standard. Dr. Fullana has participated in more than 20 EU funded projects and 150 national research studies in environmental management, LCA, ecodesign, environmental labelling and clean technologies.
M.Sc in Environmental Science (UAB) and Bachelor in Environmental Science (UAB). Currently preparing her PhD thesis. She is the head of the packaging research line in the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change and the Technical Secretary for the Packaging Life Cycle Observatory. She has participated in more than 20 national and international research projects on LCA, green procurement and ecodesign. She has published papers in technical and scientific journals, papers in conference proceedings and chapters in books. She is the co-author of two books about ecodesign and three guides on green procurement. Email: alba.bala@esci.es