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The importance of energy in environmental life cycle assessments of packaging materials
Author(s) -
Knoepfel I. H.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
packaging technology and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1099-1522
pISSN - 0894-3214
DOI - 10.1002/pts.2770070602
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , environmental impact assessment , energy (signal processing) , environmental science , production (economics) , computer science , mathematics , economics , ecology , statistics , macroeconomics , biology
By comparing existing studies and additional scenario calculations it was shown that energy data plays a central role in environmental life cycle assessments (LCA) of packaging materials. More attention should be paid to correctly linking environmental data from energy studies to packaging LCA, if possible adapting the data base to the local conditions. In general terms, it was shown that it is possible to calculate energy and packaging systems separately, because of the predominantly static links between the two. Scenario calculations show that the potential for reducing the environmental impact of packaging production by the use of cleaner energies is still considerable.