Environmental analysis of the production of champagne cork stoppers

Results showed that 53,886 kg of CO2 eq. were emitted to produce the FU. It was observed that the champagne cork stopper manufacture stage represented between 57 and 67% of the environmental impact, depending on the category. Specifically, between 25 and 47% of the environmental impacts associated with this stage were caused by the body agglomeration operation, and between 21 and 29% were caused by the gluing of discs. On the other hand, some of the production stages such as the transport of raw cork and intermediate products, cork slab preparation or end of life stages represented a very small part of the total environmental impact of the product, less than 2%. Furthermore, it was observed that a champagne cork stopper produced by the most impacting company presented a higher impact, between 10 and 27% above the sector average, depending on the impact category; while the least impacting company presented between 12 and 32% less impact. These differences indicate that some companies can improve their production by adopting technology and production practices that some of their competitors have already put in place.