SAM504 | Industrial Ecology and the Circular Economy
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
OF PAPER BAG
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Authors Of The
Report
Kitsana Sudsaneh Ishan Parekh Tei Addison
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Contents of the Report
Results
01 Introduction and 04
Background
02 Goal and Scope 05 Discussion
Conclusion
03 Methodology 06
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01:Background
● Plastic bags vs Paper bags
● Negatives of plastic bags and paper bags as
alternatives.
● Paper bags have their benefits, however, paper
bags also have environmental impacts.
● How much better are paper bags compared to
plastic bags?
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01:Introduction
● We aim to answer this using a LCA.
● Goal: perform a cradle-to-gate LCA on Paper
Bags to identify its environmental impacts across
its life cycle stages.
● This LCA study can be compared with similar
studies done on plastic bags.
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02:Goal and Scope
Goal Scope
- The presentation aims to conduct a
comprehensive life cycle assessment - Software : openLCA
(LCA) of paper bags. - Database : Ecoinvent 3.3
- Impact Assessment Method: CML v4.8 2016
- Examine the environmental impacts of - Function unit : 1 kg paper bag
paper bags Focusing on Global warming
potential and human toxicity.
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02:Goal and Scope
Limitations
Critical Assumptions and limitations ● The study focuses on
secondary data that
Assumptions already exists in Ecoinvent
● Assuming Softwood database.
● LCA Boundary Starts with ● Due to time constraint, a
Debarking as the cradle phase of cradle to gate approach was
the life cycle and ends at gate. selected.
● A reverse engineering of
ecoinvent database
approach was used for
understanding of OpenLCA.
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02:Goal and Scope
Geographical boundary
Focus on Germany, Switzerland,
and the Nordic countries.
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02:Goal and Scope
Comparison with reference studies
Weight of 1 paper bag = 50g
Assumed sack forming assumed process input to
output ratio approx 1:1
Weight of Kraft paper required = 50g
Paper bag 1 kg = 200 paper bag
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Life Cycle Stage
1. Raw Materials
02:Goal and Scope 2.
3.
Manufacturing
Using
4. Waste Management
System Boundary
03:Methodology Rough Flowchart
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03:Methodology Reference Literature
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03:Methodology Process Flowchart
SAM504 LCA Paper Sack Process Flowchart Model Graph in openLCA
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04:Results
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Life Cycle Inventory
1.Wood Debarking ● Data for Germany used for central Europe
● Debarking process starts from wood with bark. This activity
ends with debarked from wood, at factory.
● The dataset does not include dust emissions due to a high
water content in the wood nor the natural growth process of
the trees.
● Furthermore, the dataset does not include the environmental
consequences of soil compression due to the use of heavy
machines due to a lack of data
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Life Cycle Inventory
2. Chipping and Pellet Process
● Extrapolated from average Swiss conditions.
● Bark chips production : output is bark Chips
● Wood chipping process: output is Wood Chips
● Wood Pellet Production: output is Wood Pellet
● The dataset does not include dust emissions due to a high
water content in the wood.
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Life Cycle Inventory
3.Pulping Production
● Data is coming from mills in Nordic countries and Germany.
● Industry data was used which was provided by the European
Pulp Industry Sector Association AISBL (EPIS).
● Values represent weighted average of 16 corresponding pulp
mills located in Nordic countries and Germany. The used
values are a weighted average of all corresponding pulp mills.
● Emissions from these internal energy generation processes
are therefore only reflected in the key emission factors
provided by the industry, other emissions constitute a data
gap.
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Life Cycle Inventory
4.Paper Production
● Data were provided by paper mills in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
● The activity includes wood handling, chemical pulping, paper
production, energy production on-site and internal waste water
treatment. The activity ends with the paper leaving the factory
gate.
● Emissions from these internal energy generation processes are
therefore only reflected in the key emission factors provided by
the industry. The process starts with the reception of wood and
pulp at the papermill.
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Life Cycle Inventory 5. Paper Bag Production
● The dataset represents average data calculated from 36 plants in Europe
participating in the study and representing 86% of European production
by weight (based on total production within the Eurosac membership) in
the production year 2015.
● Activity starts with kraft paper delivered to the converting plant, it
includes, paper sack production, printing and energy production on-site.
The activity ends with the paper sacks leaving the factory gate.
● The air emission profile for paper sack production are based on the
amounts of fuels bought and incinerated on-site.
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Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle impacts
● The impact results
from the base case,
calculated with the
method CMI, are
detailed in table
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Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle impacts
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05:Discussion
● Limited literature available for comparison due to a scarcity of studies with similar
scope.
● The reason for the higher environmental impact of paper bags is due to high
levels of photochemical oxidation.
● The higher human toxicity impact of paper bags is due to the use of chemicals in
the manufacturing process. A pollutant-forming emissions present.
● These chemicals can leach into the environment and contaminate soil, water,
and food.
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06:Conclusion
● The environmental impact of a product is complex, depending on factors like
material type, manufacturing process, transportation, and end-of-life treatment.
● LCAs can be complex with inherent result uncertainties, yet they remain
valuable for assessing the environmental impact of various products.
● Even if paper bags are greener, they like all products have their environmental
impacts and LCA can be tool to compare products and their impacts.
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Reference
● Edwards, C., & Fry , J. M. (2011). Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags: a
review of the bags available in 2006. Environmental Agency.
● Lidbrand, I., Venkatesh, G., & Lestelius, M. (2023). Paper bags vis-à-vis LDPE bags:
Gleanings from peer-reviewed E-LCA Publications. Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae, 21(4).
https://doi.org/10.21697/seb.2023.21
● Bisinella, V., Albizzati, P. F., Astrup, T. F., & Damgaard, A. (Eds.) (2018). Life Cycle
Assessment of grocery carrier bags.
● Kali, (2022). Choose Right Paper Bags for Your Business? Custom Paper Bag Weight
Guide. https://www.luxury-paper-box.com/blog/custom-paper-bag-weight-guide-choose-
right-paper-bags-for-your-business.html
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Any
Questions?
