Life Cycle Assessment of multilayer polymer film used on food packaging field

The environmental impact of a multilayer polymer film, Low Density Poly Ethylene/Polyamide system (LDPE/PA), generally used on food packaging field, was estimated using life cycle assessment (LCA). The aim of the work was to understand how to reduce the environmental pressure from plastic packages for its lower recovery and reuse, which can be improved by developing material recovery or other appropriate recycling technology to improve the cyclic materials flows and recycling ratio. LCA is a tool specifically developed for assessing the overall environmental burden of a product, including the system used for manufacturing it and its end-of-life treatment. This work provides a cradle-to-grave LCA study of a food packaging envelope made with a multilayer polymer film, with two different depth of 70 and 90 micron, and a study of the possibility to utilize a 50% of recycled LDPE and PA polymer pellets in order to reduce the environmental impact. A one square meter envelope is used as functional unit.