Study on life cycle assessment of beverage packaging planned
The German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Environment Agency UBA are planning a new “Life Cycle Assessment of Optimisation Potentials of Beverage Packaging”. The study on the life cycle assessment of beverage packaging is expected to be published in the first half of 2023.
The federal government writes that findings on the life cycle assessment of beverage packaging are already available. These show “a fundamental ecological advantage of reusable systems”. However, the environmental impact of certain one-way bottles has been significantly reduced in some cases. This reduction is above all due to the single-variety collection in the deposit system and the subsequent high-quality recycling.
In answer to the question under which conditions reusable packaging is more ecological than disposable containers, the Federal Government refers to a study on disposable beverage cups commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency. This study came to the conclusion that the use of reusable cups is generally associated with positive environmental effects, especially if the reusable systems have a circulation rate of more than ten.
According to the German government’s statement, 94.1% of all PET beverage bottles in Germany were recycled in 2019. In the study “PET Market in Europe – State of Play” by Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd. from the year 2020, the collection of dimensionally stable PET bottles is packaging with subsequent sorting for recycling in the EU is estimated at 45% (1,900 kt). Packaging accounts for approx. 96% of the PET volume in the European Union. Of this, about 900 kt are PET trays and 3,400 kt are PET bottles. Collection and sorting for recycling of PET trays is estimated at 16 to 21%, collection and sorting of PET bottles is estimated at 52%.
