Life Cycle Assessment of Plastic Bags: Impact Analysis and Alternatives

The report looks into the Life Cycle Assessment of plastic bags on the ISO: 14040 standards and evaluates the material flow of the product along with the hotspots and alternatives. The assessment gives an insight into the several processes that contribute in making a plastic bag and analyses the impact that these processes create in the environment. The report compares three different consumer bags made out of high density plastic polyethylene plastic bags, long lasting polypropylene plastic bags and bio-degradable bags made out of paper and degradable material. The life cycle assessment of these products allows comparing the feasibility of the three different products over each other.

Running head: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report looks into the Life Cycle Assessment of plastic bags on the ISO:
14040 standards and evaluates the material flow of the product along with the
hotspots and alternatives. The assessment gives an insight into the several
processes that contribute in making a plastic bag and analyses the impact that these
processes create in the environment. The report compares three different consumer
bags made out of high density plastic polyethylene plastic bags, long lasting
polypropylene plastic bags and bio-degradable bags made out of paper and
degradable material. The life cycle assessment of these products allows comparing
the feasibility of the three different products over each other.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Processes in LCA.........................................................................................................................4
Weight calculation of the product................................................................................................6
Material flow Diagram:...............................................................................................................7
Impact analysis:...........................................................................................................................8
Identification of Hotspot............................................................................................................10
Best alternative..........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The Life Cycle Assessment or LCA of a product analyses the whole process from its
origin to end and is referred to “Cradle to Grave” analysis which allows us to understand the
impact a product creates in the process of it manufacturing, use and disintegration. The LCA is
assessed by ISO 14000 environmental standards. The standards that define LCA are according to
the ISO: 14040 standards and generally followed while assessing the life cycle impact of a
product. The report will perform a Life cycle analysis of three different plastic bags that are
generally in use. The Low Density Polyethylene, the long life Polypropylene, and the bio-
degradable bag have been taken for the assessment. The growing use of plastic bags and their
impact in the environment has been huge and therefore this product has been selected. Plastic
bags are extensively used in the present resulting in generation of huge amount of wastes. The
bags are the most common form of degradation of the environment.
Processes in LCA
The process of assessing the Life Cycle of a product includes a stage-wise process that
overviews the process in the lifetime of product. The ISO 14040 standards refer to three stages
that identify the stages of development use and disintegration or recycling in the case of a close
looped system. The stages can be represented in a schematic chart as follows:
The ISO standards define the processes in
three different stages as mentioned in the steps beside. The
GolaandScopeDefinationInventoryAnalysisImpactAsessmentINTERPRETA

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goal and scope includes necessity of assessing Plastic bags, the inventory analysis discusses
inputs and the outputs. A cradle-to-grave involves all the stages in the production of the
product: from raw
material extraction and transport to production sites and consumption, until the re-use or the
disposal of the finished good.
The goal of this LCA report is to compare the different types of grocery bags in their
complete life cycle. The production or manufacturing, use and disintegration or recycling of
these bags will be analysed to understand their impact over their life cycle. The goal of the report
will also analyse the functional unit of the product, the processes, and the number of stages
defining the start and the end point of the product.
The Inventory analysis involves the production flow chart, accumulating data and
information, evaluating the inputs and the outputs of the system and comparing the alternative
products.
The final stage is the impact assessment, and relates the findings of the inventory analysis
and thereby evaluates them with respect to their outputs in the environment. The analysis
includes the impacts that are created in the various stages of production transportation usage and
end of life.

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Weight calculation of the product
The following table compares the various materials used for manufacturing plastic bags over the
time.
Product Weight in grams Functional Unit
HDPE 5.4 Single use
PP 90.0 Reusable (2 times)
Bio-Degradable bags 120 Reusable (8 times)
The weight of the material includes is calculated per gram of a single unit of plastic bag.
The functional unit of bag is derived from its usability. The functional unit is therefore measured
in terms of the usage of the bags. The number of times the bag is used will be treated as the
functional unit of the bag. The HDPE bags are of single use, the PP bags are used for 2 times and
the bio degradable bags are used at least 8 times. The overall weight calculated in terms of
annual usage. The weight referred in the table includes the general weight. The weight of the
plastic bags is calculated till the product is either recycled or is passed to the next step of
degradation. The table below will represent the national consumption of plastic bags (Greene,
2011).
Table 3: Annual consumption of plastic bags single use and reusable. Source:
Environment.gov.au (2018)

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Material flow Diagram:
The material flow of Plastics bags can be understood from the following flow diagram
which will explain the cradle to grave process of the material.
ProductionofPlasticpelletstransportingpellettoconverterconversionofpellettofilmconversionoffilmtobagshippingtoretailstorefirtstimeusagemultipleusageconsumersrecyclebagConsumerthrowsbagastrashbagsendsinLandfill

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During the material flow processes there are several inputs and outputs that are derived which
add to the environmental impact that the product create in the whole process. The several inputs
that involved in the material flow include energy resources, transport, and water resources. The
resources that are involved in the process come out as outputs in the form of various toxic
emissions, several water discharges and solid wastes. Some by products and recyclable wastes
are also derived through the material flow process (Mori et al. 2013).
Impact analysis:
The Impact analysis of plastic bags and bio-degradable bags can be evaluated from the
material flow that has been derived. The major impact that HDPE single use plastic bags create
is during its end of life if not recycled. The HDPE bags take a very long period of time to
disintegrate in the environment. The alternative Bio-degradable bags, mostly Paper bags take a
lesser time and completely disintegrate in the environment.

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Table 1: Environmental Impact of various plastic bags; Source: Environmental impacts of
shopping bags, Dr Karli Verghese, 2009.
The above table gives a brief idea about the impact created by the plastic bags and its
alternatives. The bio degradable bags refer to the Paper bags in the table. The impact created on
the environment is categorised into several categories and an impact rating has been done by Dr.
Karli Verghese, and is shown in the following table. The least impact according to the table has
been shown by PP Bags that are long life Polypropylene bags and are reusable.

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Table 2: Impact analysis of the alternatives. Source: Environmental impacts of shopping bags, Dr
Karli Verghese, 2009
The table above proves that PP bags that are used have the lowest impact on the
environment and these should be implemented an input to practice. The impacts were analysed
based on the global warming, photochemical oxidation and eutrophication, land and water use,
solid waste generation and fossil fuel use (Verghese et al. 2009). The impacts of plastic bags
were studied over secondary literature to understand the effect of these bags in the environment
cycle.
Identification of Hotspot
The hotspot refers to the stage in the material flow which creates a maximum impact in
the environment. The end use of the plastic bags as compared to paper bags has been highly
detrimental owing to their longevity. The hotspot of the plastic bags can be identified in the
stages of production from pellets to films. The maximum impact to environment is created in this
stage and therefore reduction in the film thickness can reduce energy intake (Verghese et al.
2009). Along with the use of renewable energy resources during manufacturing can also reduce

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the impact. For the case of creating litter, bio-degradable bags or paper bags will have the lowest
impacts. They can be recycled effectively and degradation is also less harmful.
Best alternative
Given the scenario of plastic bags, the best alternative can be suggested that paper bags
have the lowest impact in terms of degradation while the PP bags have the lowest impact in the
environment in overall material flow. Thus the best alternative would be long life Polypropylene
bags that would have minimal effect in the environment and would create the environmental
sustainability with proper management.
Conclusion:
The importance of analysing the Life Cycle of a product lies in the evaluation of the
productions impact on the environment. The growing environmental pollution and the effect of
the products in the whole life cycle were not evaluated yet this contributed a major part in the
global environmental degradation. The life cycle assessment of a product helps us to understand
the impact that a product creates from its inception to its grave or disintegration back into the
environment and quantify the amount of impact created, to compare between better alternatives.
This report with its evaluation of the life cycle of plastic bags gives us an insight into the impact
they create and the alternatives that can be used.

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References
Wichai-utcha, N. and Chavalparit, O., 2018. 3Rs Policy and plastic waste management in
Thailand. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, pp.1-13.
Greene, J., 2011. Life Cycle Assessment of Reusable and Single-use Plastic Bags in
California. CSU Chico Research Foundation.
Environment.act.gov.au (2018). Which bags are banned and which are allowed? - Environment,
Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate - Environment. [online]
Environment.act.gov.au. Available at: https://www.environment.act.gov.au/waste/plastic-bag-
ban/which-bags-are-banned-and-which-are-allowed [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
Hauschild, M.Z. and Huijbregts, M.A., 2015. Introducing life cycle impact assessment. In Life Cycle
Impact Assessment(pp. 1-16). Springer, Dordrecht.
Verghese, K., Lewis, H., Fitzpatrick, L., Hayes, G.M. and Hedditch, B., 2009. Environmental
impacts of shopping bags. Report for Woolworths Limited, Ref. number: SPA1039WOW-01,
pp.1-36.
Environment.gov.au 2018. [online] Environment.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/c8dd95af-c028-4b6e-9b23-
153aecbf8c3c/files/australian-plastics-recycling-survey-report-2016-17.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct.
2018].
Mori, M., Drobnič, B., Gantar, G. and Sekavčnik, M., 2013. Life Cycle Assessment of
supermarket carrier bags and opportunity of biolpastics. Proceedings of SEEP2013. Maribor,
Slovenia.

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Narodoslawsky, M., Shazad, K., Kollmann, R. and Schnitzer, H., 2015. LCA of PHA
production–Identifying the ecological potential of bio-plastic. Chemical and biochemical
engineering quarterly, 29(2), pp.299-305.