Life Cycle Assessment of Packaging Materials in relation to Extended Producer Responsibility: Report for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency

Packaging products play a crucial role in protecting, preserving, and promoting products. However, the rapid growth in packaging material consumption and single-use packaging designs contribute significantly to waste generation. To address this issue, the European Union has established targets and directives for reducing packaging waste and increasing reusable packaging in the market through a set of measures to promote a circular economy through targets on waste reduction, reuse, and minimum recycled content; an example is the Revision of Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste . Denmark also aims for faster implementation of circularity and reusability by introducing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs. Implementing EPR policies requires systematic assessments of a product's environmental impact. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that evaluates a product's impact throughout its entire life cycle. Conducting an LCA for a product is essential for identifying the most impactful alternatives, encouraging sustainable design, recycling and reuse, and tracking progress in reducing overall environmental impacts. This study provides an LCA of selected packaging materials considering three end-of-life scenarios: i) multiple-loop reuse, ii) multiple-loop recycling and iii) incineration as a reference. The aim is to support the Danish EPA in implementing EPR policies.

The study found that reuse is the most favourable option for all selected materials and packaging types. Recycling was the second-best option, with the highest benefits observed for energy-intensive materials like metals and glass. The incineration scenario was found to be the least desirable option, presenting the highest emissions on the environment for all materials and scenarios. The report provides comparable impact calculations for the three scenario types across the selected materials.