LCA study in Americas

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) carried out by Anthesis Ltd. demonstrated that the average Pure-Pak® carton presents a lower carbon footprint than a typical HDPE bottle or PET bottle in the North American market.

In 2021, Elopak commissioned a comparative LCA of different primary packaging solutions for fresh milk and juice sold in North America (Canada and the USA). This study confirms the results of other LCA studies from other regions, showing favorable results for beverage cartons as the most environmentally friendly packaging format. Pure-Pak® cartons have a better LCA profile than disposable PET and HDPE bottles in both juice and fresh milk sectors. Results also showed that cartons produced with brown board from Europe has lower impact than cartons from white board produced in North America.

A key focus for the study was the Global Warming impact category, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool to quantify the environmental impacts of a product throughout its lifecycle. The system boundary for each product system in this LCA was ‘‘cradle-to-grave’’, including the extraction/cultivation and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, forming and filling processes, end-of-life, and all transportation and waste stages.

An independent panel of experts carried out a critical review of the study to ensure compliance with the ISO standards for LCA (ISO14040 and 14044).

This LCA assumed that plastic bottles contained post-consumer recycled content, 15% for HDPE bottles and 7,5% for PET bottles, taking a conservative approach.