Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Multiple Liquid Laundry Detergent Packaging Formats

Saewhan Kim and Jonghun Park
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Saewhan Kim: School of Graphic Communications Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
Jonghun Park: School of Graphic Communications Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: The emerging packaging industry trend of focusing on packaging sustainability is also occurring in the laundry detergent industry. This study presents a cradle-to-grave comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of three different packaging systems for liquid laundry detergent: the conventional pourable bottle, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) container with pods, and flexible pouch with pods. The scope of this study included material production, intermediate processes, transportation, and end-of-life phases of each packaging system. The results showed that the conventional pourable bottle made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has less environmental impact than the other two packaging systems in all impact categories, except ecotoxicity, due to the higher amount of packaging material required to produce the pods. The rigid PET container with pods impacted the environment in all categories more than the multi-layered flexible pouch containing pods, due primarily to the amount of material production, heavier weight, and intermediate processing using injection molding.

Keywords: packaging; sustainability; life cycle assessment; laundry detergent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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