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

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