Summary
This Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) compares the environmental performance of providing protective packaging for the delivery of white and brown goods with four different packaging solutions. Expanded Polypropylene (EPP), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), honeycomb paperboard, and molded pulp, are evaluated for the delivery of two products: TV and washing machine.
Several uncertain factors were found to significantly influence the results of the study, including the assumed damage rate during transportation, the mass of the package, and modeling choices, such as whether damaged products during transportation are considered.
The relative superiority of one alternative over another depends on how these factors are considered, as well as on the type of product, and the environmental impact category being assessed. The results revealed that the impacts resulting from the damaged products that the packaging solutions fail to protect are the most substantial, accounting for up to 59% of the total impacts on average for washing machines and 72% for TVs. This is followed by the impact of packaging materials, which contribute 24% of the total impact for TVs and 36% for washing machines, and transportation, which accounts for 4% of the total impact for TVs and 5% for washing machines.