Abstract
After functional phase, packaging becomes waste that is recycled or disposed of in landfills. Recently, numerus packages have been developed for assessing the packaging risk on the environment. We applied Gabi 4 Education software on polymer product packaging for meat products. The objective of first part of the paper was characterization of materials used for meat and meat products packaging in terms of mechanical and barrier properties. Results show that tested materials are able to keep protective atmosphere and contribute to the quality and sustainability of the product. Air permeability was 3.60 and 26.60 ml/m224h, and water vapor was 6.90 and 9.50 ml/m224h, respectively, for foils 1 and 2, as a result of different film composition. In second part, based on real data, Gabi 4 Education software is applied. The obtained results showed that organic compounds emissions have the highest impact on human health and the most damaging environmental impact observed was the emission of CO2.
Highlights
After the functional phase, packaging becomes waste that is recycled or disposed of in landfills
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is generally considered the best environmental management tool that can be used to to define designing and operating criteria able to make a programme of recycling and recovery of plastics, economically affordable, and, at the same time, socially acceptable and environmentally effective [3,4]
Compared to results obtained by Lazić et al [22], who analysed similar packed meat products, our results show better properties regarding CO2 and N2 permeabilities
Summary
After the functional phase, packaging becomes waste that is recycled or disposed of in landfills. LCA is a methodology for quantifying the potential environmental impacts associated with a product, process or activity. The plastic films used for vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), techniques that are used in the meat industry to extend the product shelf-life [18], were developed to improve their gas and moisture barriers, shrinking properties, sealing characteristics, cook-in and retort capability and a variety of print and color options.
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