The Impact assessment

Data was collated on the lifecycles of the Rapak systems and their competitors so the impact assessment could be carried out.

The impact assessment used the CML method to measure the bag-in-box and liner systems against their alternatives in 10 impact categories:

Global warming potential

What is it? Global warming potential (GWP) or carbon footprinting is a measure of how much of a given mass of a green house gas (for example, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide) is estimated to contribute to global warming.

Why is it an issue? If no action is taken to reduce global carbon emissions, average temperatures are likely to rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius over the next 50 years. This change will increase severe weather such as tropical storms, droughts and extreme heat waves and heavy precipitation. Stabilisation would require emissions to be at least 25% below current levels by 2050.

How is it measured? Global warming potential is measured in terms of CO2 equivalents.

The GWP results show that the BIB alternatives gave lower impact than their pouch counterparts especially at higher volumes. The liquid packaging board container again benefits from the use of renewable materials which reduced its overall GWP.

These results again show the significance of packaging weight and material on GWP. Although the larger pouch creates a bigger impact from material use, it benefits from a lower impact during transportation and at end-of-life.

In terms of the real world examples, Therefore, every 1000 litres of wine contained in the 3 litre metallised barrier laminate BIB instead of the 0.75 litre glass bottle saves 621kg of CO2 eg a 20 Tonne truck travelling from Birmingham to Paris

For every 24000L container packed in Bag in Box instead of bottles is equivalent to 14 trucks travelling Lands End to John O Groats