A Life Cycle Comparison of Alternative Cheese Packages

Abstract

A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) between three different cheese packages (P1: completely polypropylene (PP), P2: tin and polyethylene (PE), and P3: carton and PE) has been carried out for the production, distribution and waste disposal (100% landfill) phase. A package for 1 kg of cheese was selected as the functional unit. SimaPro7 software (PReConsultants, The Netherlands) was used for the LCA study. The EcoIndicator 99 method was selected for comparison of the packages. The comparisons show that the total environmental performance of the cheese package types in order from worst to best is P2, P1, and P3. This conclusion was supported by a sensitivity analysis, which was conducted by using different impact assessment methods.