Product shot of a mozzarella cheese packaging
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Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment on a mozzarella cheese packaging's entire life cycle


To better understand the environmental impacts of both the packaging format as well as the raw material source within a mozzarella packaging’s entire life cycle, BASF conducted a study with Südpack and Sphera.

BASF’s sustainable mass-balanced polyamides Ultramid® Ccycled®, produced by using chemically recycled feedstock, or Ultramid® BMBcert, produced by using renewable feedstock, were examined in the mix with polyethylene.

The results demonstrate that significantly lower environmental impacts, primarily resulting in a reduction of CO2 emissions, can be achieved by using flexible multi-layer packaging with a large share of chemically recycled or renewable raw materials.

LCA Study

(pdf, 3.89 MB)

Bird's eye view of the Sphera logo cut into trees
Structure and conformity with ISO standards
Panel decision: “…this LCA study followed the guidance of and is consistent with the international standards for Life Cycle Assessment (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006) and for Carbon Footprint of Products (ISO 14067:2018)”

Methodical Approach

LCIA methodology

Environmental Footprint (EF 3.0) assessment method published by the European Commission

Packaging Formats

Südpack mozzarella multi-layer packaging

Flexible multi-layer packaging

Südpack mozzarella packaging - rigid tray and lid film

Rigid tray + lid film

Raw Materials

 

Base Case         Chemically recycled* PA6 + conventional** PE

Alternative 1      Chemically recycled* PA6 + chemically recycled* PE

Alternative 2      Biomass-balanced* PA6 + conventional** PE

Alternative 3      Conventional** PA6+ conventional** PE

 

* via mass balance approach
** conventional = based on fossil raw materials; the pictures are illustrating the packaging format, in fact real supermarket-retailed mozzarella packagings were purchased, examined and used for this study.

Packaging Format Perspective

Two retailed mozzarella packagings were compared according to their climate change impacts.
Flexible multi-layer vs. rigid tray packaging

Results

The rigid tray packaging system shows the highest potential environmental impacts in all categories


Explanations

Nearly 3-fold use of raw materials in the production of the rigid tray packaging (2.41 kg/FU for flexible vs. 7.25 kg/FU for rigid packaging)



* Climate change impact category assessed based on the IPCC characterisation factors taken from the 5th Assessment Report for a 100-year timeframe (incl biogenic CO2, incl Land Use Change)

 

Diagram of climate change

Raw Material Perspective

The flexible multi-layer mozzarella packaging was assessed according to the climate change impact of different raw material sources.
Flexible multi-layer packaging from conventional vs. sustainable raw materials

Results

  • The conventional packaging (Alternative 3) shows a significantly higher climate change impact vs. packaging containing chemically recycled* PA6 (Base Case)
  • Increasingly lower environmental impacts can be achieved using flexible multi-layer packaging with a high share of chemically recycled* raw materials (Alternative 1)
  • Climate change impact reductions for packaging containing chemically recycled* raw materials are mainly caused by the upstream system expansion
      
     

* via mass balance approach
** chemically recycled; conv. = conventional

Diagram of climate change 2

Get in contact

Dr. 
Paul Neumann
NBD & Sustainability Polyamides Europe