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Environmental implications and market analysis of soft drink packaging systems in Mexico. A waste management approach

  • LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT • CASE STUDY
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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.

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Technological Development, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Río Hondo No. 1, Col. Tizapán San Ángel, Mexico City, 01000, Mexico

    Omar Romero-Hernández, Sergio Romero Hernández, David Muñoz, Emiliano Detta-Silveira, Arturo Palacios-Brun & Adriana Laguna

Authors
  1. Omar Romero-Hernández
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  2. Sergio Romero Hernández
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  3. David Muñoz
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  4. Emiliano Detta-Silveira
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  5. Arturo Palacios-Brun
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  6. Adriana Laguna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omar Romero-Hernández.

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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

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-008-0053-5

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