Reduction of CO2 emissions by improved management of material and product use: the case of primary packaging

Approximately 40% of the global primary energy use and emission of CO2 is r elated to the production of materials. Therefore, improved management of ma terials is likely to lead to substantial reductions in CO2 emissions. The o bjective of our study is to investigate the potential and cost efficiency o f CO2 emission reduction by means of improved management of material use fo r primary packaging in western Europe. CO2 emission related to primary pack aging accounts for approximate to 3% of western Europe's CO2 emissions. Mea sures for improved use of primary packaging material are identified and eva luated. The potential and cost of each measure is established. A supply cur ve for CO2-emission reduction is presented based on data on the use of prim ary packaging in 1995. We show that technically it appears possible to redu ce the CO2 emissions related to the production and use of primary packaging in 1995 by 51%, by implementing new packaging technology that is expected to become available between 1995 and 2010. In this investigation, improveme nt of energy efficiency in material production processes and changes in pac kaging demand are not taken into account. All evaluated measures can be imp lemented cost effectively when considering life cycle costs. Evaluation of the improvement measures shows that 9% reduction of CO2 emissions related t o primary packaging is feasible by using lighter packages. Material substit ution can lead to a reduction of 10%. From a CO2 emission reduction point o f view, the most promising improvement is substitution of single use packag ing by re-usable packaging. This may lead to 32% reduction in CO2 emissions . However, large scale implementation of this option may be very complex. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.