Social Life Cycle Assessment of Product Value Chains Under a Circular Economy Approach: A Case Study in the Plastic Packaging Sector

Diana Reinales,David Zambrana-Vasquez,Aitana Saez-De-Guinoa

doi:10.3390/su12166671

Diana Reinales, David Zambrana-Vasquez + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166671

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Abstract

Environmental and economic impact assessment of products have a long record, while social performance analysis of products have less references in the scientific literature due its particularities and the adaptations needed for the features of the studied subject. In addition, there is a lack of a methodological framework of its application in the analysis of value chains, with the aim of estimating the impacts of technical innovations from the social point of view. This paper describes the theoretical framework and impact assessment approach for the Social Life Cycle Assessment of product value chains under a circular economy approach by applying a scoring system in different subcategories and indicators, considering the plastic packaging sector as a case study. Twelve subcategories have been chosen, because of their relevance to the case study, related to the impacts on the labor conditions, consumers’ well-being, end-of-life of the product, local community conditions, technology and suppliers, among others. The validation of the methodology in the plastic packaging sector is done by considering the main stakeholders involved in the value chain and the particularities of the sector.

Highlights

Worldwide, plastics production has surged over the past 50 years, increasing from 15 million tonnes produced in 1964 to 311 million tonnes in 2014
This paper describes the theoretical framework and impact assessment approach for the Social Life Cycle Assessment of product value chains under a circular economy approach
There are many different S-Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches depending on different aspects, such as: the origin of social impacts, S-LCA can establish a casual correlation between impacts and processes or impacts and company behavior; the allocation, share of impacts among the product systems; the system boundaries, which depends on the scope of the assessment; and the social indicators, which can be quantitative or qualitative [47]

Summary

Introduction

Plastics production has surged over the past 50 years, increasing from 15 million tonnes produced in 1964 to 311 million tonnes in 2014. The most common plastic materials used are polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and vinyl polychloride (PVC), which represents 36%, 21% and 12%, respectively, of the total non-fiber plastics production. Plastics are used in many applications, with the packaging, i.e., the element used to contain, protect, handle, deliver and present goods, being the largest one, which represents the 26% of the total volume of plastics used. In the plastic packaging sector, the main materials used are non-fiber plastics, mainly PP, PE and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [1]. Europe is the second largest producer of plastic materials in the world, producing 20% of thermoplastics and polyurethanes materials. This percentage represents the manufacturing of, approximately, 65 million tonnes of plastics [2]. In 2014, 28.5 Mt of post-consumer plastics waste ended up in the waste stream, being 69.2% recovered by recycling or recovering process and the remaining 30.8% sent to landfill [2]

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