Life Cycle Assessment of the Industrial Use of Expanded ...

1 EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report1/130 August 2001 Life Cycle Assessment ofthe Industrial Use of ExpandedPolystyrene Packaging inEuropeCase Study: Packaging Systemfor TV setsFull report Final versionAugust 2001 Prepared for the Association:European Manufacturers of Expanded polystyrene (EUMEPS)EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report2/130 August 2001 TABLE OF to Cycle Practitioners and Commissioning and Scope of the of the of the of the product Review Cycle Inventory analysis: sources of main data and of expandable polystyrene (PS) of PS into Collection of data for transformation of a packaging system for a 25" TV steps related to EPS packaging (except closed looprecycling)32 EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report3/130 August steps related to closed loop recycling of steps related to secondary of post-consumer of related to material recycling of related to waste related to incineration of related to landfilling of Cycle inventory and life Cycle impact Assessment results for thereference and energy oxidants tables of do cardboard and LDPE seem to dominate the results?

2 Cycle Sensitivity Analyses and on sensitivity of sensitivity analyses carried of TV sets weight during the transportation of the sensitivity of EPS packaging including rate of EPS in the closed looprecycling (5%, 25%, 35%) of the sensitivity of EPS recycling rate with a standard situation regarding domestic wastefate (80% landfill and 20% incineration) of recycling rate with an alternative situation regarding domestic wastefate (0% landfilling)66 EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report4/130 August of all studied scenarios with recycling/ of EPS of the sensitivity of sensitivity analyses table of LCA results normalised with European conclusions and identification of improvement Critical of the critical Ecobilan answers to the critical review of Terms and A.

3 Detailed description of sub level EPS life Cycle system description in of Expandable PS beads (sub-system 1) of virgin EPS (sub-system 2) of expandable PS into EPS packaging (sub-system 3) of empty EPS packaging (sub-system 4) packaging material (cardboard and LDPE) production andend of life (sub-system 5) of EPS and secondary packaging with TV set (sub-system6) EPS packaging end of life (sub-system 7) EPS packaging in closed loop (sub-system 8) B: Sample questionnaire for data collection of main of EPS transformation for collecting numerical quality questionnaire98 EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report5/130 August C: Variation of individual data for the transformation step,shredding step and definition of TV packaging of inputs in the transformation of releases in the transformation of data for the shredding of data for the definition of a 25" TV set packaging D: Sources of secondary E: Modelling of incineration and landfilling withWISARDTM of household wastes with recovery of steam of household waste with leachates and landfill gas F: General methodology for life Cycle Assessment Cycle functional Assessment and Interpretation of Life Cycle of impact factors origins in the life of the flows regarding their effects on the resource Warming oxidants of stratospheric ozone G.

4 Inventory tables of reference scenario130 EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report6/130 August 20011. Executive SummaryIntroduction Goal and scope of the studyThe European Manufacturers of Expanded polystyrene (EUMEPS) Association commissionedPricewaterhouseCoopers/Ecobi lan to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ExpandedPolystyrene (EPS) used in the Industrial packaging sector. EPS production tonnage in Europe forpackaging applications (fish boxes excluded) represents around 200 000 t (source: EUMEPS 2001statistics).The goal of this LCA was to:- identify the sources of environmental impacts associated with the use of EPS in the packagingsector in Europe,- quantify the benefits of implementing a closed-loop recycling scheme of the EPS purposes of this study, the EPS being studied is used as a packaging material for the packagingof a TV set and more particularly a 25 TV set1.

5 The packaging system of a 25 TV set is thefollowing: an EPS packaging ( kg), a cardboard box ( kg) and LDPE foam ( kg)giving a total weight of kg for an average weight of TV of study has been conducted according to the requirements of International Standards (ISO 14040,ISO 14041, ISO 14042 and ISO 14043). An external critical review was carried out by anindependent LCA expert, Dr. Dennis Postlethwaite based in UK. The critical reviewer concludedhis comments as follows: "Overall, a well-executed professional LCA fulfilling the objectives ofthe work and presented in a lucid and exemplary manner."The follow up of the LCA study was insured by a EUMEPS Task Force composed of 7 membersfrom various European countries, through regular contact with PricewaterhouseCoopers/Ecobilanand through 4 meeting that took place all along the study from September 2000 to June unit and system boundariesThe functional unit of this LCA is the following:to pack and enable the transportation of 1 000 television sets (25 )Based on average data obtained from a number of industry sources, this equates to the use of: 722kg of EPS, 2 828 kg of cardboard and 98 kg of LDPE film foam.

6 These quantities represent thefunctional LCA study corresponds to a "cradle-to-grave" study, the whole life Cycle of the EPSpackaging system for a 25 TV set was considered. Therefore, the study includes the various 1 the value 25 refers to the length of the diagonal of the TV screen (25 = cm)EUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report7/130 August 2001transport routes that are taken by the EPS from the site of production of virgin EPS, through themanufacture of the EPS packaging, its delivery to the customer and its final end of life whole system was broken down into the following 8 f sub-systems, as displayed by figure 1:When defining the life Cycle of EPS packaging of TV sets, a choice had to be made regarding thetype of recycling option that would be studied within this LCA.

7 For EPS packaging, various typesof recycling routes currently exist in Europe, the main one being the use of recycled EPS in blocksfor building applications. Recycling in closed loop accounts for approximately 11% of the EPSrecycling options in Europe. The rates of EPS recycling varies a lot depending on the Europeancountry, from nearly 1% to 86% with a European average of 25% (source: EUMEPS 2001statistics). In the reference scenario, a rate of 0% recycling was considered, the closed looprecycling being studied in sensitivity ofused EPS1- Production of Expandable PS6- Transport of TV set with packagingfrom manufacturers to retailers890 kmSeparatecollection ofEPS packaging50 kmTransport ofused EPS92 km2- Transport of virgin EPS698 kmPre-expansionMolding4- Transport of empty EPSpackaging to TV manufacturer94 km5- Production andend of life ofother packagings(cardboard and PEfoam)TV set packing7- End of lifeCollection of used EPS withdomestic waste30 km8- Closed-loop recyclingLandfillingIncineration withenergy recovery20 %80 %0% to 35% post-consumers EPS100% to 65% virgin EPS3- Transformation stepFigure 1.

8 System boundaries of the life Cycle of EPS packaging for TV setsThe main steps that were omitted from the system boundaries are production of TV sets,consumption of diesel oil directly related to the transport of TV sets themselves, the transformationstep of LDPE in LDPE foam, printing steps of cardboard sheets and transformation step ofEUMEPS LCA of EPS packaging Final report8/130 August 2001cardboard sheets in boxes. The modelling of secondary packaging life Cycle was less detailed andbased on literature of data and main hypothesesData concerning the definition of the packaging system for TV sets were provided by two major TVsets manufacturers in concerning the manufacture of EPS packaging, the distribution steps as well as some recyclingsteps of the packaging system were specifically collected for the purpose of this study in 2000-2001by questionnaires distributed to EUMEPS members (national associations).

9 The data were providedby 15 European Industrial companies and are relevant for 2000 or 1999 year, depending on data used to model the production of expandable PS correspond to the eco-profile published in1999 by APME (Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe).Corrugated cardboard was considered to be made of recycled fibers and literature data published in1996 by the federal Swiss Office of Landscape and Environment (BUWAL) were used to model theproduction step. For LDPE production, APME 1999 data were European fuel mix for electricity generation represents the European situation for model the fate of used packaging system (EPS, cardboard and LDPE), a ratio of 80% landfillingand 20% incineration with energy recovery was used. This breakdown is representative of 1995data for European Union but it should be mentioned that the breakdown between incineration andlandfilling varies a lot depending on the country in Europe.

10 The end-of life steps (incineration andlandfilling) were modelled with Ecobilan in-house data derived from the WISARD2 transportation steps, classical models were used based on literature data and on real distances oftransport collected for the purpose of the the recycling of used EPS in a closed loop, it was assumed that 1 kg of used and shredded EPSreplaces 1 kg of virgin pre- Expanded PS. Thus, using shredded post-users EPS allows to avoid theuse of virgin expandable any energy recovered from the incineration of waste, the approach chosen was to subtract fromthe inventory the environmental impacts linked to the production of the energy quantity (electricityor steam) that the incineration process allows to save (considering that an average 35% of theenergy from the waste is recovered).