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Brasil
PackTrends
2020
174
sustainability & ethics
As Life Cycle Assessment studies measure
various forms of environmental impact such as global
warming, natural resource depletion, acidification,
eutrophication and human toxicity, among others, they
have been considered as one of the best instruments for
the quantification of human action on the planet. The
document Brazil Pack Trends 2020 shows that, this
technique, in its simplest form, the
Life Cycle Thinking
becomes a powerful tool to be applied to continuous
improvement of the existing processes as well as to
drive new products and processes development, which
have goal to become more sustainable. The application
of this tool for packaging unfolds in this document
in four trends to be pursued over the next decade:
Optimization of the product/package system; Reuse &
Recycling; Waste Management & Reverse Logistics and
Credibility & Ethics (
Table 7.1
).
TABLE 7.1
Sustainability & Ethics – General trends and guidelines for packaging
Sustainability & Ethics
General trends
Guidelines for packaging
Optimization of the product/package
system – Doing More with Less
From Life Cycle Thinking perspective:
• Resource efficiency: natural resource consumption reduction, weight
(lightweighting), volume reduction, energy saving
• Materials and energy from renewable sources
• Reduction of losses
• Greenhouse gas emissions (Carbon footprint) reduction
• Water consumption (Water footprint) reduction
Reuse & Recycling
• Shelf life extension
• Ecodesign
• Recycling
• Development of new recycling technologies
Waste Management & Reverse Logistics
• Reverse logistics
• Symbolism for identification of post-consumer packages
Credibility & Ethics
• Extended responsibility
• Accreditation and validation
• “No” for Greenwashing