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Brasil
PackTrends
2020
194
sustainability & ethics
available equipment. A good example is the technology
for holographic printing called HoloBrite
TM
(
FIGURE
7.20
), which prints directly on the cardboard, providing
a bright appearance without the need for a polyester or
metal lamination film.
This process allows the packaging is recycled
in equipment normally used in the recycling of waste
paper and cardboard, without the generation of waste
plastic. This technology has been adopted by industries
Paperworks in the printing of the Aquafresh toothpaste
cartridge (MOHAN, 2012).
FIGURE 7.20
Example of Design for Recyclability
Source: Press release
Environmental issues are always of wide character
and difficult to interpret. Life cycle assessment can
be considered one of the broader environmental
methodologies, since it can link, through its functional
unit, parameters usually incomparable, of various types,
such as the use of energy and water, eutrophication
and acidification processes, land use, consumption
of natural resources, etc. Due to this wide approach,
able to show numerous and distinct aspects of the
real environment, the methodology has spread around
the world and has been gaining importance in many
sectors. One of its requirements, for example, is that
various environmental aspects must be included
in the analysis, so it is not allowed to reference the
methodology in studies that do not include several
categories of environmental impact at the same time.
Given the complex nature of these issues
and the need to take urgent action to reduce the
environmental impacts of human activities, some
more simplified derivations of traditional LCA studies
have been applied to crucial questions such carbon
and water footprints
.
These new metrics, derived from LCA studies, take
advantage of the “supply chain” approach, but focus
only on some particular aspects, such as the emission
of greenhouse gases, measured by the carbon footprint.
Considering the importance of the consequences of
greenhouse gas emissions, discussed in section 7.2.1,
Carbon footprint and water footprint
is of great value monitoring and mitigation of the same.
The carbon footprint is the quantification
of the greenhouse gases of a product or service
emitted during its life cycle, from the extraction of
raw materials, processing, distribution and use up
to the final disposal. This term is expressed in units
of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO
2
equiv.). In the ISO
14040 and ISO 14044, the
Carbonfootprint
impact
appears as the
Global Warming Potential
, one of the
environmental impact categories usually analyzed.
The word
Carbonfootprint
as well as the method for its
quantification, is described in the document PAS 2050
(BRITISH STANDARD INSTITUTION, 2011).
Some products are already
Carbonfootprint
appeal on their packages, like the Bloomsberry &
CO’s chocolate (FIGURE 7.21), which informs how
consumers can reduce the carbon footprint and the
effects of climate change.
The water footprint is an indicator that measures
the direct and indirect consumptions of water and its
pollution along the products life cycle. Considering
the low availability of potable water in countries and
regions with high population density and the current
incapacity for treatment of all the generated effluents,
the reduction of the water footprint must be between
the priority environmental actions. The methodology
for its quantification, however, is under consolidation
phase
(MENDIONDO, 2011).