Social and environmental impacts of packaging (LCA and assessment of packaging functions)

This paper reviews the functions of packaging materials and the social and environmental impacts that packaging has, reflecting our changing lifestyle. The functions of some packaging materials, such as prevention of food contamination, protection against spoilage, preservation of contents and communications linking the food manufacturer to the customer, are many and varied in extent and complexity. The current life cycle assessment (LCA) can not easily be applied to the assessment of environmental impacts of packaging materials, taking packaging functions into consideration, but attempts at such application are being made experimentally.