The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
香港科技大学

ENVR 5340 Fundamentals of Sustainability Science and Technology
ENVR 5340 可持续发展科学与技术基础

Final Project Report
最终项目报告

Topic: The Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Paper and Plastic Flower Packaging Solutions
主题：纸和塑料花包装解决方案的比较生命周期评估

CHAN, Sum Yi
陈森怡
CHENG, Oi Yan
程爱燕
HUANG, Danqi
黄丹琪
YAU, Wai Ying
邱伟英
YU, Ho Bun
俞浩文

7 December 2024
7 十二月 2024

Abstract
抽象

Sustainability in packaging has become a prominent concern in modern society. Within the packaging industry, the manufacturers tend to develop their new business models to facilitate innovations of bio-based packaging materials to replace the traditional fossil-derived plastic materials. In this study, a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to compare the environmental impacts of the cradle-to-grave processes of the Ecoflower box, which is manufactured by the eco-material specialized company, Stora Enso Oyj, and the traditional fossil-derived plastic flower bucket. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions will be assessed and compared the life cycle processes between these two flower packaging materials. This study findings indicate that……………(summarise our result and finding here)
包装的可持续性已成为现代社会的一个突出问题。在包装行业内，制造商倾向于开发新的商业模式，以促进生物基包装材料的创新，以取代传统的化石衍生塑料材料。在这项研究中，进行了比较生命周期评估 （LCA），以比较由生态材料专业公司 Stora Enso Oyj 制造的 Ecoflower 盒子与传统化石衍生塑料花桶从摇篮到坟墓的过程对环境的影响。将评估温室气体排放量，并比较这两种花卉包装材料之间的生命周期过程。他的研究结果表明...............（在此处总结我们的结果和发现）

Introduction
介绍

Project Description
项目描述

The flower packaging market is one of the industries which requires high demand for packaging materials since customers around the world are highly demand on flowers for fun, festival celebration and special events. Foreseeing the future, it is expected that the flower packaging market will grow 5.3% annually by 2028¹. Facing the expanding demand on flower packaging materials and the increasing market preference on sustainable flower product packaging, the study aims to provide quantitative information on environmental impacts of Ecoflower box and plastic flower bucket in order to identify the most environmentally sustainable flower packaging options for flower retailers and customers.
鲜花包装市场是对包装材料需求量很大的行业之一 ，因为世界各地的客户都对鲜花有很高的需求，用于娱乐、节日庆典和特殊活动。展望未来，预计到 2028 年，鲜花包装市场将以每年 5.3% 的速度增长¹。面对对花卉包装材料不断增长的需求以及市场对可持续花卉产品包装的日益偏好，该研究旨在提供有关 Ecoflower 盒子和塑料花桶对环境影响的定量信息，以便为花卉零售商和客户确定最环保的花卉包装选择。

Key Objectives of the Project
项目的主要目标

To demonstrate how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can identify, quantify and evaluate the environmental impact of flower packaging
展示 生命周期评估 （LCA） 如何识别、量化和评估 花卉包装对环境的影响

To promote the most sustainable flower packaging option to consumer
向消费者推广最可持续的鲜花包装选择

Major Benefits of the Project
项目的主要优势

Better evaluation of the impact of using paper and plastic flower packaging through LCA
通过 LCA 更好地评估使用纸质和塑料花卉包装的影响

Improve the environmental performance of the flower packaging by redirecting resources from plastic packaging production to paper one
通过将 资源从塑料包装生产转向纸质包装，提高花卉包装的环保性能

Facilitate communications and collaboration among stakeholders including suppliers, distributors, and customers for better decision making
促进利益相关者（包括供应商、分销商和客户）之间的沟通和合作，以便做出更好的决策

Establish a living case to reference or replicate in the future logistics industry
建立活生生的案例，在未来物流行业中借鉴或复制

Support marketing of EcoFlowerBox, the paper flower packaging solution
支持纸花包装解决方案 EcoFlowerBox 的营销

Approach
方法

This section presents the general scope of the project to achieve the objectives, including product description, functional units of the products, system boundary and the sources of data. LCA will be performed according to Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Requirements and guidelines EN ISO 14044:2006+A2:2020
本节介绍了实现目标的项目的一般范围，包括产品描述、产品功能单元、系统边界和数据来源 LCA 将根据环境管理 - 生命周期评估 - 要求和指南 EN ISO 14044：2006+A2：2020 进行.

Product Description
产品描述

A plastic bucket made of polypropylene (PP Bucket) is the most common packaging solution for transporting flowers. To switch out the use of plastic during transportation, Stora Enso, a leading provider of renewable products in packaging, has developed an environmentally friendly solution – EcoFlowerBox (EFLB). It is a square box made from corrugated board, which consists of renewable materials. Table 1 shows the details of EFLB and PP Bucket for comparison.
聚丙烯烯制成的塑料桶 （PP Bucket） 是 运输货物最常见的包装解决方案。 为了在 运输过程中不使用塑料，包装领域可再生产品的领先供应商斯道拉恩索开发了一种环保解决方案——EcoFlowerBox （EFLB）。它是一个由瓦楞纸板制成的 square box，由可再生材料制成。表 1 显示了 EFLB 和 PP Bucket 的详细信息，以供比较。

Table 1. Description of EFLB and PP Bucket
表 1.EFLB 和 PP 桶说明

Functional Unit

Both EFLB and PP Bucket are designed to transport tulips from the nursery greenhouse to retail stores. Three characteristics are important to assess the functionality of these containers: quality of being stackable, stability and water resistance. The quality of being stackable refers to the packaging capacity. The shape of the container plays a beneficial role as more boxes can fit on pallets compared to buckets due to its square and stackable structure, optimizing transportation capacity. Stability refers to the ability of the containers not to flip around during transportation. Water resistance refers to friction between the surface of containers and water particles. This is crucial since the containers need to keep sufficient water amount to maintain the freshness of tulips. Apart from storing tulips, there is another major function of these 2 types of buckets, the buckets are also used for storing adequate amount of water to keep the tulips fresh during the transportation process. The functional unit of these buckets is transporting 100 tulips and storing around 2-3cm water level per box. Tulips and their required water amount are selected as the representative flowers for this functional unit as tulips are easy to grow in a mass scale with high efficient hydroponic system developed commonly in the greenhouses in Finland. For example, according to the information a greenhouse in Finland, Partaharju Puutarha, its hydroponic system has produced 38 million cut tulip in the season 2021-2022², which is the flower species commonly planted and sell in Finland.
EFLB 和 PP Bucket 都设计用于将郁金香从苗圃温室运输到零售店评估这些容器的功能三个特性很重要：可堆叠的质量、稳定性和防水性。可堆叠的质量是指包装能力集装箱的形状起着有益的作用，因为与其方形和可堆叠的结构相比，托盘上可以容纳更多的箱子，从而优化了运输能力。稳定性是指集装箱在运输过程中不翻转的能力。防水性是指容器表面与水颗粒之间的摩擦。这一点至关重要，因为容器需要保持足够的水量以保持郁金香的新鲜度除了储存郁金香外，这两种类型的桶还有另一个主要功能，桶还用于储存足够的水，以保持郁金香在运输过程中的新鲜。这些桶的功能单元是运输 100 株郁金香，每箱储存约 2-3 厘米的水位 郁金香及其所需的水量被选为该功能单元的代表花，因为郁金香很容易大规模生长，采用芬兰温室中常见的高效水培系统。例如，根据芬兰一家温室 Partaharju Puutarha 的信息，其水培系统在 2021-20222 年季节生产了 3800 万株切割的郁金香，这是芬兰普遍种植和销售的花种。

System Boundary
系统 B基础

The study illustrates cradle-to-gave system boundaries of the both EFLB and PP Bucket.
该研究说明了 EFLB 和 PP 桶的摇篮到给定系统边界。

The first processes are raw material acquisition and product manufacturing process. For manufacturing PP bucket in the factory, the recycled pp granulate will undergo melting, inject to mould, cooling and dyeing processes. For producing Ecoflower Box, raw materials, such as LDPE and PET were used, and the processes include fluting and gluing of paper of the Ecoflower box. During the whole manufacturing process of Ecoflower box, the main energy sources are electricity and heat consumption.
第一个过程是原材料获取和产品制造过程。为了在工厂制造 PP 桶，回收的 pp 颗粒将进行熔化、注射到模具、冷却和染色过程。为了生产 Ecoflower Box，使用了 LDPE 和 PET 等原材料，其过程包括 Ecoflower Box纸张的瓦楞和胶合。在生态花箱的整个制造过程中，主要能源是电力和热量消耗。

After the manufacturing processes, the finished PP buckets and Ecoflower boxes are transport from producers to the greenhouse, the packed flower products will then transport from the greenhouse to the retailer. Retailer then transport the products to the consumers.
制造过程结束后，成品 PP 桶和 Ecoflower 盒子从生产商运输到温室，然后包装好的花卉产品将从温室运输到零售商。然后零售商将产品运输给消费者。

Finally, the dispose of the products will undergo recycling processes. The waste PP bucket will transport to recycling plants and incineration for further handling. In the end-of-life stage, the materials of the pp bucket can be recycled after sorting, cleaning, shredding or grinding, melting, cooling processes, and incinerate the waste which is not recyclable. The waste Ecoflower boxes were incinerated and recycled, and the heavy and light oils can be recovered from the refinery. The recycled cardboard and the recovered energies after recycling processes can be reused as an input of the manufacturing process.
最后，产品的处理将进行回收过程。废 PP 桶将运送到回收厂并焚烧以进行进一步处理。在报废阶段，pp 桶的材料经过分拣、清洁、切碎或研磨、熔化、冷却过程后可以回收利用，并焚烧不可回收的废物。废弃的 Ecoflower 盒子被焚烧和回收，重油和轻油可以从炼油厂回收。回收的纸板和回收过程后回收的能源可以再利用，作为制造过程的投入。

System Boundary of PP Bucket
PP 桶系统边界

System Boundary of Ecoflower Box
Ecoflower Box 的系统边界

Methodology and Source of Data
方法和数据来源

This LCA study including the Life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) and Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was performed in OpenLCA 2.0 software using the GreenDelta and Ecoinvent 3.9 databases. The framework of LCA is illustrated in Figure 1.
这项 LCA 研究包括寿险 存货分析 （LCI） 和寿险影响评估 （LCIA），是在 OpenLCA 2.0 软件中使用GreenDelta 和Ecoinvent 3.9 databases 进行的。LCA 的框架如图 1 所示。

Figure 1. Framework of LCA in this project
图 1.本项目中 LCA 的 Framewo rk

Results and Discussion
结果与讨论

Life Cycle Inventory
生命周期清单

(Please input)
（请输入）

Life Cycle Impact Assessment
生命周期影响评估

(Please input)
（请输入）

Interpretation of Results
结果解释

The carbon footprint comparison of flower containers highlights the significant influence of recycling rates on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Higher recycling rates lead to greater avoided emissions from material recovery, especially for the polypropylene (PP) bucket. When recycled at 100%, the PP bucket achieves higher avoided GHG emissions than the fiber-based flower box due to key factors. Recycling plastic consumes less energy than producing virgin plastic from fossil fuels, as it bypasses energy-intensive extraction and refining processes. Additionally, plastic’s higher fossil carbon content allows for greater emissions reductions when recycled, unlike the plant-based fiber in corrugated board, which has lower fossil carbon. Virgin plastic production is also more emission-intensive than corrugated board manufacturing. Moreover, the PP bucket offers higher energy recovery potential during incineration due to its superior heating value compared to corrugated board. These factors demonstrate the environmental advantages of recycling and energy recovery for plastic containers.
鲜花容器的碳足迹比较突出了回收率对温室气体 （GHG） 排放的重大影响。更高的回收率可以更好地避免材料回收产生的排放，尤其是聚丙烯 （PP） 桶。由于关键因素，当 PP 桶以 100% 回收时，PP 桶比纤维基花箱实现了更高的避免温室气体排放。回收塑料比从化石燃料生产原生塑料消耗的能源更少，因为它绕过了能源密集型的提取和精炼过程。此外，塑料的化石碳含量较高，与瓦楞纸板中的植物纤维不同，回收后可以减少更大的排放，而瓦楞纸板中的植物纤维则具有较低的化石碳。原生塑料生产也比瓦楞纸板制造排放更密集。此外，与瓦楞纸板相比，PP 桶具有更高的热值，因此在焚烧过程中具有更高的能量回收潜力。这些因素证明了塑料容器回收和能源回收的环境优势。

Future Research and/or Investigation
未来的研究和/或调查

References
引用

Lifecycle Inventory Analysis for PP buckett
PPBuckett 的 生命周期库存分析

Manufacturing: Input： PP pellets 、Labor、Energy (electricity, natural gas)
制造业：投入：PP颗粒、人工、能源（电力、天然气）

Output： PP buckets、 waste gases, waste water
输出：PP 桶、废气、废水

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965262401223X

Life Cycle
生命周期

1/1000000*96*250kw=0.024kwh

100kg* 1/1000000*96=0.096kg
100公斤* 1/1000000*96=0.096公斤

Inventory List with Amount
包含数量的库存清单

Input and Output Models of Processes (EFLB)
过程的输入和输出模型 （EFLB）

Figure 1: Input/ Outputs tab of the process editor for the process EFLB Manufacturing
图 1：EFLB Manufacturing 流程的流程编辑器的 Input/Outputs（输入/输出）选项卡

Figure 2: Input/ Outputs tab of the process editor for the process EFLB Transportation
图 2：EFLB 运输流程的流程编辑器的 Input/Outputs（输入/输出）选项卡

Figure 3: Input/ Outputs tab of the process editor for the process EFLB Recycling
图 3：EFLB 回收流程的流程编辑器的 Input/Outputs（输入/输出）选项卡

2) The Product System Chart of EFLB from OpenLCA
2） 来自 OpenLCA 的 EFLB 产品系统图

Inputs can create an impact on resource availability
输入会影响资源可用性.
Outputs create an impact on human health and ecosystem health
产出对人类健康和生态系统健康产生影响.

3) The Overview Impact of EFLB
3） EFLB 的概述影响

Excel download from the OpenLCA:
从 OpenLCA 下载 Excel：

https://hkustconnect-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/sychanby_connect_ust_hk/EUi0ewmPs-pMiFOAoCtXi08BYHP2jMyrt0P68ryQwWhmBg?e=Q5lMLI

Reference units: PM2.5 and CO2
参考单位：PM2.5 和 CO2