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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a Tool for Evaluating Sustainable Packaging Systems

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 976

Editors

Prof. Dr. Patrycja Bałdowska-Witos

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Guest Editor
Department of Technical Systems Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Interests: energy efficiency; environmental efficiency; circular economy; mechanical engineering; cleaner production; process energy consumption; packaging plastics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Izabela Piasecka

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, Al. Prof. S. Kaliskiego 7, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Interests: engineering; mechanical engineering; agricultural engineering; life cycle assessment; sustainable development; energy; renewable energy; photovoltaic; wind energy; circular economy; environment; waste management; recycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growing environmental impact of packaging waste has led to increased demand for sustainable packaging solutions aligned with the principles of the circular economy. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a recognized and standardized method for evaluating the environmental impact of products at every stage of their life cycle – from raw material extraction, through production and use, to end-of-life management.

This Special Issue focuses on the analysis of various packaging materials and formats—including plastics, paper, glass, and bioplastics—in terms of their environmental performance.

Sustainable packaging design should consider not only the appropriate selection of materials but also their recyclability, durability, and production efficiency. The LCA method provides a comprehensive approach to assessing environmental impact, supporting eco-design strategies and enabling manufacturers, policymakers, and consumers to make more informed and responsible decisions.

Prof. Dr. Patrycja Bałdowska-Witos
Prof. Dr. Izabela Piasecka
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable packaging life cycle assessment (LCA) circular economy
  • eco-design packaging recycling biodegradable materials
  • environmental impact life cycle optimization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 3498 KB  
Article
Recycling Versus Landfilling of Plastic Packaging: Comparative Life Cycle Energy Implications Under Circular Economy Conditions
by Patrycja Bałdowska-Witos, Izabela Piasecka, Zbigniew Kłos and Andrzej Tomporowski
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(15), 7852; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16157852 - 6 Aug 2026
Viewed by 331
Abstract
Plastic packaging is indispensable in modern food and beverage supply chains. However, its production and end-of-life management require substantial primary energy inputs. Improving the energy efficiency of packaging systems is therefore a key objective of circular economy strategies. This study applies Life Cycle [...] Read more.
Plastic packaging is indispensable in modern food and beverage supply chains. However, its production and end-of-life management require substantial primary energy inputs. Improving the energy efficiency of packaging systems is therefore a key objective of circular economy strategies. This study applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the cumulative energy demand (CED) of a beverage packaging system comprising polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) bottles, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) caps, and polypropylene (PP) labels under two end-of-life scenarios: recycling and landfilling. The assessment was performed using Polish production and waste-management conditions (2022–2024). A functional unit of 100,000 complete 1 L beverage packages was adopted, and the life cycle inventory combined primary industrial data with background datasets from the ecoinvent database. Recycling scenarios were modelled using a substitution-based allocation (system expansion) approach. The results indicate that non-renewable energy accounted for approximately 88–97% of the total cumulative energy demand of the analysed packaging components. Among the investigated materials, PP labels exhibited the highest component-specific cumulative energy demand, whereas rPET bottles showed the lowest values, corresponding to an approximately 13% lower energy demand than conventional PET bottles under the adopted modelling assumptions. Recycling consistently outperformed landfilling by reducing cumulative primary energy demand across all analysed impact categories, with the greatest energy-saving potential observed for PP labels. Negative CED values obtained for selected recycling scenarios represent avoided primary energy resulting from virgin material substitution rather than physically negative energy consumption. The findings demonstrate that component-level LCA provides a robust basis for identifying energy hotspots within plastic packaging systems and supports evidence-based decisions regarding eco-design, material selection, and recycling strategies. Although the absolute CED values are specific to Polish production and recycling conditions, the overall results confirm that material recycling is a more energy-efficient end-of-life strategy than landfilling and contributes to the development of more sustainable circular packaging systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a Tool for Evaluating Sustainable Packaging Systems)
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