Abstract
Background, aim, and scope
This paper presents a waste management analysis of the packaging systems for soft drinks in Mexico, with emphasis on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers. The work presented is part of a project sponsored by a consortium of Mexican industries that participate in the PET market, such as resin producers, bottle manufacturers, soft drinks producers, distributors, and plastic recyclers. Two different life cycle assessments (LCAs) were elaborated to provide insight on waste management scenarios and waste products comparisons, respectively. The first LCA was a description of the actual PET market and PET waste treatment in Mexico. On the second LCA, three systems were analyzed: PET bottles, aluminum cans, and glass bottles. Currently, these results are used in Mexico as a basis for environmental policy.
Materials and methods
PET bottle’s participation in the market has increased substantially in the previous years, and it is forecasted that this increase rate will continue. Due to this factor, there are some concerns about the environmental implications of PET usage. In order to analyze the waste management of PET bottles in Mexico, an LCA and a series of sensitivity analyses were conducted in order to understand: (1) the effect of different collecting distances in environmental impacts, (2) the effect of different recycling rates in environmental impacts, (3) the effect of different collecting rates in environmental impacts, and (4) the effect of different collecting rates with its associated distances in the environmental impacts.
Results and conclusions
An optimal degree of PET waste collection was identified as a result of considering different collecting rates and distances. At this point, minimum environmental impact occurs. This is due to the excessive increase in environmental resources that is needed in order to collect higher amounts of waste by traveling longer distances. These results may pose significant implications on current environmental legislation and waste management policies in Mexico and can well be applied into other Latin-American and developing countries. Other results show that production processes represent the highest environmental impacts along the supply chain, which are considerably higher than those impacts related to transport and collecting activities. Because of this, the environmental advantages of waste management in Mexico can be significant as long as the material that is collected is also recycled. Results to be presented include specific impact data on electricity generation and transport in Mexico.
Recommendations and perspectives
This work can be used as a basis for decision making in environmental policy. Moreover, it provides technical grounds to demonstrate that under certain conditions, traditional waste management systems may cause higher environmental impacts than the environmental benefit/credit that they are supposed to deliver.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angell L, Klassen R (1999) Integrating environmental issues into the main stream: an agenda for research in operations management. J Oper Manag 17:575–598
APME (Association of Plastic Manufacturers in Europe) (2002) Eco-profiles of the European Plastic Industry. PET Conversion Processes. Belgium
APREPET (Asociacion par Promover el Reciclado del PET AC) (2004). http://www.aprepet.org.mx
Arena U, Mastellone M, Perugini F (2003) Life cycle assessment of a plastic packaging recycling system. Int J Life Cycle Assess 8(2):92–98
Azapagic A, Perdan S, Clift R (2004) Sustainable development in practice. Wiley, England
Doka G, Hischier R (2005) Waste treatment and assessment of long-term emissions. Int J Life Cycle Assess 10(1):77–84
IKP University of Stuttgart (2005) GaBi 4.0 Manual. Germany
Kelton D, Sadowski R, Sadowski D (2002) Simulation with Arena, 2nd edn. McGraw Hill, USA
Martchek K (2006) Modeling more sustainable aluminum. Int J Life Cycle Assess 11(1):34–37
Ménard J-F, Lesage P, Deschênes L, Samson R (2004) Comparative life cycle assessment of two landfill technologies for the treatment of municipal solid waste. Int J Life Cycle Assess 9(6):371–378
Norris G (2003) Energy burdens of conventional wholesale and retail portions of product life cycles. J Indust Ecol 6(2):59–69
Romero O (1998) Waste treatment and optimal degree of pollution abatement. Environ Pro 17(4):270–277
Romero-Hernandez O (2004) To treat or not to treat? Applying chemical engineering tools and a life cycle approach to assessing the level of sustainability of a clean-up technology. Green Chem 6(8):395–400
Romero-Hernandez O (2005) Applying life cycle tools and process engineering to determine the most adequate treatment process conditions. A tool in environmental policy. Int J Life Cycle Assess 10(5):355–363
Romero-Hernandez O, Muñoz Negrón D, Romero-Hernandez S (2005) Introducción a la Ingeniería. Un enfoque Industrial. Editorial Thomson, Mexico
Romo Murillo D, Romero Hernandez O, Samaniego Breach R (2005) ‘Industria y Medio Ambiente en México. Un nuevo paradigma para el control de la contaminación’. Editorial Porrúa, Mexico
Roy MJ, Vezina R (2001) Environmental performance as a basis for competitive strategy: opportunities and threats. Corp Environ Strategy 8(4):339–347
Spielmann M, Scholz RW (2005) Life cycle inventories of transport services: background data for freight transport. Int J Life Cycle Assess 10(1):85–94
Thomas B, McDougall F (2004) International expert group on life cycle assessment for integrated waste management. Review of 11th meeting, Oxford 17th–18th, November 2003. Int J Life Cycle Assess 9(2):138–140
Ward PT, Duray R (2000) Manufacturing strategy in context: environment, competitive strategy and manufacturing strategy. J Oper Manag 18:123–138
Acknowledgments
Support provided by Asociacion Mexicana de Cultura A.C. is highly appreciated. Authors want to express their deepest gratitude to APREPET AC, for supporting this research initiative. Our deepest gratitude to Prof. Adisa Azapagic, at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, England and Prof. Gregory Norris at Sylvatica and Harvard University for reviewing and commenting on the methodology and project results. Ing Manuel A. Oneto-Suberbie provided insight and support on the writing and editing process. Authors want to express their gratitude to all those people who voted this work as the second best in the International LCA conference in Costa Rica in 2005.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Romero-Hernández, O., Romero Hernández, S., Muñoz, D. et al. Environmental implications and market analysis of soft drink packaging systems in Mexico. A waste management approach. Int J Life Cycle Assess 14, 107–113 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-008-0053-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-008-0053-5