Preventing environmental impacts of products by proper packaging:Conclusions from LCA case studies as main rationale for packaging designer toolbox

A toolbox is being developed to support packaging and product designers, when assessing environmental impacts of the entire value chain of the food product. One main rationale of the project is to minimise environmental impacts of food products by suitable packaging. Environmental impacts of three food products (bread, ham, Soygurt drink) and their packaging alternatives with recovery options are assessed by LCA in separate case studies. One unique element within these case studies was a consumer survey on the amounts of food waste of the selected product groups generated at households, as a function of different sizes of packaging. The results of our study show that the amount of food waste is found to be a dominating factor when comparing environmental impacts of different food packaging solutions and this observation is among main rationales of the toolbox