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CORRUGATED
CARDBOARD HELPS REDUCE THE IMPACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
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A study on environmental and economic impact compares single
use corrugated cardboard boxes with reusable plastic crates
in the long-distance transportation of fruit and vegetables.
• Reviewed under the supervision of Barcelona Autonomous
University. Barcelona, September 5th, 2005 corrugated cardboard
boxes present less negative environmental impact and are
more economical than the collapsible plastic crates used
in the transportation of fruit and vegetables over long
distances. What’s more, corrugated cardboard boxes
also help reduce the impact caused on climate change. This
is because
the trees, whose wood is later used in the manufacture of
the paper which go to make up cardboard act as consumers
of CO2, therefore reducing the amount of this gas in the
atmosphere.
In financial
terms, corrugated cardboard boxes actually imply lower costs
over their entire life cycle than plastic packaging, if
equal time spans are compared. These are the main findings
of the study entitled “Environmental and economic
comparison of corrugated cardboard boxes and plastic crates
used in the exportation of fruit and vegetable products”,
which was presented in the Second International Conference
on “Life Cycle Management”, being held in Barcelona
from September 5th to 7th.
.
The investigation has been carried out by the ID&EA
Group (Group for Research in Integrating Design with Environmental
Assessment), of the Polytechnical University of Valencia
(UPV), and the Packaging, Transport and Logistics Research
Institute (ITENE). The report was revised by the Autonomous
University of Barcelona.
The main aims
of this study were to compare the environmental features
of corrugated cardboard boxes with those of plastic crates
used in the transportation of fruit and vegetable products
over long distances, as well as to analyse the costs of
both systems, during their respective complete life cycles.
At the same
time, the research has focused on analysing in detail the
life cycles of both types of materials used in packaging,
their effect on the environment, the financial operations
involved and the economic cost of each of the phases of
their life cycles. Dr. Salvador Capuz, Director of the ID&EA
Group in UPV and head researcher in this study, stated that
“this work aims to provide users of packaging as well
as the public at large with valid criteria to help in decision
making, according to what the users need to carry out their
business activity. Companies are more and more aware of
their responsibility towards maintaining sustainable development.
And it is our task as researchers to achieve deeper know-how
in these areas, develop tools for economic and environmental
decision making and make the results available to everybody
who wishes to use them”.
The study has
used as an example the transportation of a fruit and vegetable
product, such as a tomato, on its journey from Almeria in
Spain to Hamburg in Germany. The following aspects were
analysed:
carcinogenic
agents, non-organic and organic respiratory elements, climactic
change, radiation, destruction of the ozone layer, ecotoxicity,
acidification and eutrophication of water, soil usage and
reduction of mineral resources.
As far as collapsible plastic crates are concerned, given
the uncertainty surrounding the number of times they can
be reused, the investigation has included the results of
a sensitivity analysis which considers 5, 20, 50 and 100
rotations, even if the last option seems unrealistically
high, given the deterioration and/ or loss of the crates.
Dr. Joan Rieradevall,
Chief Investigator of the Institute of Environmental Science
and technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona
and the person responsible for the Critical Review of the
study, commented that “this is an excellent piece
of research, which will go a long way towards clarifying
the global environmental impact associated to environmental
improvement strategies in the final stage of using packaging.
Its key contribution is to provide brand new data in the
field of re-usage and recycling”.
Environmental
impact
The most notable findings of the study conclude that the
environmental impact of single use cardboard boxes is always
lower than that of reusable plastic in six of the 10 categories
analysed, even considering the hypothesis of 100 rotations
of the plastic crates.
These six categories, as well as climactic change, are soil
usage, ecotoxicity, destruction of the ozone layer, radiation
and organic respiratory elements. In fact, in the category
of destruction of the ozone layer, the collapsible plastic
crate provokes an 87% higher impact than when the corrugated
cardboard boxes are used.
The reusable
plastic crates can turn out to have less negative impact
in four of the categories analysed, but always depending
on the number of times they are used, namely:
carcinogenic
elements, inorganic respiratory elements, acidification
and use of minerals. This is due to the large contribution
during the production phase to global environmental impacts,
given that this stage includes the processes which utilize
polyethylene resins as a raw material for the manufacture
of plastic containers.
This contribution
diminishes in relative importance over the rest of the phases
of the life cycle, once the number of presumed rotations
increases. In both cases, the major environmental impact
occurs in the production and use of the packaging.
The production phase includes both the obtaining of the
raw material (paper and high density polyethylene, respectively)
and the processes of extracting those raw materials and
their associated transportation. On comparing both processes,
the corrugated cardboard box environmental impact is always
noticeably lower than in the case of collapsible plastic
crates.
The most remarkable
difference in the category of climactic change is where
the corrugated cardboard box’s contribution is negative,
i.e. it actually reduces this impact given the CO2 consuming
effect of the trees where the wood, used in making cardboard,
originates from.
The usage phase includes the transportation of the containers
which is refrigerated to protect the product. More resources
are needed to transport the same quantity of fruit and vegetables
if they are in plastic crates rather than in cardboard boxes,
as the former weighs more and uses up more space. Furthermore,
once at their destination, the plastic crates have to be
returned, unlike the cardboard boxes which may be recycled
nearby.
Cost
comparison
The cost of
acquiring cardboard boxes is 13% lower than the cost of
renting and paying a deposit for the plastic crates, which
also occurs during the transportation phase, with the other
associated costs. This difference is higher in the associated
costs at the end of the containers’ life cycle, especially
in the case of the corrugated cardboard which actually represents
income as it is sold on to the final distributor, whereas
the collapsible plastic crates are returned to Spain to
be re-conditioned. In this case, there is a difference of
0.318 € per unit.
ID&EA Group (Polytechnical University of Valencia)
The ID&EA
research group (Integration of Design and Environmental
Assessment), which forms part of the “Engineering
Projects” Department of the UPV, first appeared in
1998 to research the way in which Engineering Design could
contribute to minimizing environmental impacts during a
product’s life cycle. The increasing relevance of
this area, as well as the actual awareness of the environmental
problems Industry faces, were the reasons for its creation.
It is a cross-faculty
group made up of doctors, professors and research graduates,
specialised in fields such as industrial engineering projects,
chemical engineering, environmental studies, energy, and
business organisation among others.
ITENE
ITENE (Packaging,
Transport and Logistics Research Institute) is a Technological
Centre, founded as a private non-profit making association,
declared of Public Usage and comprising 450 companies, entities
and institutions related to the world of Packaging, Containers,
Transport and Logistics. Its mission involves improving
business competitiveness through the promotion of research,
development, innovation and the provision of advanced technology
services in packaging, transport and integrated logistics.
It employs 70 professionals in this task and has a budget
of 3 million euros.
For further
information, please contact:
ITENE
Domi Collado: 963 90 54 00
dcollado@itene.com
www.itene.com
www.upv.es
Thanks to http://www.citpa-europe.org/NeoDownload?docId=35283
According to
a study by Valencia Polytechnical University and ITENE
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