Cascades, specialising in development and marketing of tissue products made from recycled fibres has announced that the life cycle assesment (LCA) of its Polystyrene foam packaging has confirmed that the material has a positive effect on the environment.
The LCA was conducted on behalf of the company by CIRAIG, which is involved in analysing the ecological footprint left by food packaging trays. According to the study, the kind and amount of material used and the kind of energy used are the key factors, which have the most effect on the environment and not the way the product’s life cycle is ended.
Amongst the various types of material packaging that were studied, which included normal and recycled polyethylene terephthalate, oriented and foamed polystyrene, polylactic acid polymer and polypropelene, foamed Polystyrene had the most advantage on the environment as it was largely made of air and this material produced the least amount of greenhouse emissions throughout its life cycle starting from sourcing the raw material to its end of life. The study also concluded that the use of recycled materials for food packaging and moulded pulp contributes positively to the environment and this also results in decreasing the negative effects of raw material extraction. This study has helped in identifying the various aspects of every product’s life cycle that affect the environment.