Overwhelming environmental benefits of single-use paper packaging confirmed for takeaway and home-delivery services

Life Cycle Assessment study by the independent Ramboll Group
(Published November 2022)

The European Paper Packaging Alliance (EPPA) commissioned this rigorous Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Study from the Ramboll consultancy to accurately reflect the real-life impact of different food and beverage container solutions in takeaway and home-delivery services. To achieve this, the analysis extended its focus from the container products themselves to cover the entire working system of the restaurants providing takeaway and home delivery services. The robust, reliable and up-to-date primary data analysed thus includes a wide spectrum of relevant parameters, from washing process to type of dishwasher, reuse and return rates, means of transport and distance covered.

The resultant decisive findings were subjected to nine sensitivity analyses to test the assumptions of the study, confirming a very clear advantage for single-use paper-based packaging.

Incontrovertible benefits of single-use
paper packaging identified in
all 12 categories analysed

This comprehensive LCA study analysed 12 different environmental impact categories, including mains drinking water consumption, CO2-equivalent emissions, ozone depletion and use of fossil, mineral and metal resources.

The results completely dismantle the common perception that reusable packaging is a better solution for the environment, showing that single use paper packaging provides better environmental outcomes than reusable packaging in every single one of the 12 impact categories analysed.

Overall, multiple-use packaging was found to:

  • generate almost double (91%) additional CO2-equivalent emissions

  • consume more than two thirds (64%) additional freshwater

  • produce more than double (129%) additional fine particulate matter

  • increase fossil depletion by 85%

  • Increase metal depletion by 433%

Transporting the packaging back to the restaurants and then washing and drying it were the biggest environmental pollution hotspots for multiple-use containers and the reason for their much worse environmental impact. Single-use paper packaging does not require this transport or additional washing by its very nature and can easily be recycled into high quality secondary products.

The full study can be downloaded here.