Browsing by Subject "aaltopahvi"

In 2020, 377 million liters of beer were sold in Finland. A large part of it was sold in multipacks for example in 12 or 24 multipacks. These multipacks require a secondary package which are often made out of shrink plastic or corrugated board. The aim of this study is to determine which of these materials is better alternative as packaging material in terms of functional properties as well as from an environmental point of view. The hypothesis is that corrugated board is more environmentally friendly option because it is made of renewable and recyclable material and the image of corrugated board is more environmentally friendly than shrink plastic. The properties required of the secondary packaging material were elucidated for the interview study, interviewing the different stages of the secondary packaging value chain. In general, the packaging was expected to be as environmentally friendly as possible and corrugated board was chosen by each interviewee as more environmentally friendly packaging material compared to shrink plastic. The functional properties of corrugated board were also highlighted more than properties of shrink plastic. The differences in the life cycle assessment of the materials in the secondary packaging were investigated as accurately as possible. Differences arise, for example, from the energy consumption of the packaging device, the logistics of the material and its disposal or possible recycling. Less shrink plastic is needed compared to corrugated board but the shrink plastic packaging machine consumes significantly more energy than the corrugated packaging machine. As the corrugated packaging machine is also faster the amount of energy used for packaging increases greatly with shrink plastic. Recycling both materials lower their carbon footprint and recycling is possible across the country. Both materials have their own strengths but the environmentally friendly image of corrugated board, its functional properties and the low energy used in packaging compared to shrink plastic seems to make corrugated board a very good alternative as a secondary packaging material.