A green near-future for UHT milk packaging

IN A RECENT study commissioned by SIG Combibloc, Europe’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) made a Europe-wide lifecycle assessment for UHT milk packaging and came up with the following conclusion: carton packs are top performers in the categories “CO₂emission” and “fossil resource consumption”.The analysis compared the environmental impacts of HDPE, PET and carton packs.

The rationale behind the study rested on the fact that throughout its life cycle, every product—including packaging—has demonstrable environmental impacts. And so, life-cycle assessments, such as those made by the IFEU, are done to help obtain credible, scientifically proven and reliable facts on these impacts.

Mr Michael Hecker, head of the group environment division of the health & safety department at SIG Combibloc explains the basis for the study: “Our objective was to obtain valid facts about the environmental performance of all the current market-relevant packaging solutions for UHT milk throughout their life-cycle. In Europe, alongside carton packs the prevalent packaging solutions include HDPE and PET multilayer bottles in the 1,000 ml volume. In light of this information, we commissioned the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Heidelberg to carry out a comparative, Europe-wide life-cycle assessment studying the environmental impacts of these packaging systems—naturally in accordance with the ISO Standards 14040ff for lifecycle assessments.” The IFEU is one of the most reputable environmental institutes in Europe, carrying out studies and analyses for government ministries, international environmental organisations, Germany’Nike Air Penny 6