Comparative life cycle assessment of paper and cardboard based packaging solutions for e-commerce: A case study on a book application

The sustainability of packaging has become fundamental for many companies, partly because of increasingly stringent European regulations, such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Companies that want to sell the product through e-commerce are therefore called upon to evaluate and consider the performance and environmental impact of their products. The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental impact of the life cycle of two e-commerce packaging solutions for a book application: a kraft paper bag and a cardboard bag. First, the life cycles of the single packaging solutions were analyzed, then the environmental performances of the two packaging structures were compared. For both solutions, the results show the high impact associated with the materials used to make the bags. The comparative analysis highlighted the lower environmental impact of the kraft paper bag. Because of the importance and high environmental impact of the constituent materials and waste generated during the forming phase, three sensitivity analyses were carried out to investigate this aspect: one on the origin of the material, one on the waste quantity, and one on the energy source used. Regardless of those aspects, the cardboard-based bag appears more impactful than the kraft paper bag. In addition, an uncertainty analysis was carried out to determine the robustness of the dataset used.