Frans Silvenius

Role of Packaging in LCA of Food Products

This article presents the results from life cycle assessment case studies of packed food products made in the Futupack2010EKO Project, where environmental impacts of different food packaging options were investigated. Also environmental impact scenarios resulting from the unutilised food supply caused by food wasted in households as a function of different sizes of packaging were included. The studied environmental impacts were climate change, eutrophication and acidification. A consumer survey was carried out to determine and model the amount of food waste from consumers. The results of the LCA case studies showed that the production chain of the wasted food was usually a more significant source of environmental impacts than the packaging production chain. Packaging solutions that minimise the generation of food will lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts over the entire product-packaging-chain.

Life cycle assessment of mink and fox pelts produced in Finland

The functional unit of the study was a single modified and sewn mink or fox skin. The life cycle standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 were followed. The inventory based on questionnaires from the whole fur production chain. The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fecal matter processing have been calculated following the IPCC and the ammonia model from the Finnish Environment Institute. The fecal matter loads (N2O and NH3 and nutrients) from fur farms have been allocated to fur production, and after being spread in fields, loads have been regarded as crop load. The fecal matter nutrients were regarded as substitute for mineral fertilizers. The methane emissions produced by the digestion of animals have been calculated on the basis of an expert knowledge from MTT. Economic allocation was made for calculating environmental impacts of by-products from slaughtering. The omission of nutrients from the Baltic Sea as a result of the fishing of Baltic herring for feeding fur animals has regarded. The carbon footprint of the production chain of a single piece of mink (28 kg CO2-eqv/pelt) or fox pelt (83 kg CO2-eqv/pelt) is at the same level as the carbon footprint resulting from one to three days’ average consumption of a consumer. The single largest factor that increases the carbon footprint is the nitrous oxide in fecal matter. The fur production chain has a decreasing impact on the amount of eutrophying emissions because it exploits the fish from maintenance fishing. It is an important issue in Finnish circumstances, because the Baltic Sea is very sensitive to eutrophication. The acidifying emissions of the fur production chain result especially from the ammonia evaporating from the fecal matter of the fur animals.