Environmental Impact Assessment of Bioplastic and Melamine-based Coffee Cup Production

Abstract

The environmental impacts and energy consumption for polylactic acid (PLA) and melamine coffee cup were studied by applying the life cycle assessment approach. The functional unit of coffee cup was a cup used to contain 180 mL of coffee to be used for 1 time/day for 2 years. The results show that up to the use phase, global warming, abiotic depletion, freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity were 1,041.14 gCO2-eq/cup, 6.02 g Sb-eq/cup, 41.53 g 1,4-DB-eq/cup and 6.73 g 1,4-DB-eq/cup for PLA cup, and 1,595.67 gCO2-eq/cup, 14.23 g Sb-eq/cup, 51.36 g 1,4-DB-eq/cup and 8.31 g 1,4-DB-eq/cup for melamine cup. These clearly indicate that production and use of PLA cup have less environmental impacts when compared to that of melamine cup. The impacts of whole life cycle, however, significantly depended on the waste disposal scenario. Disposal of PLA cup through landfill with energy recovery would emit 251.46 gCO2-eq/cup, while that without energy recovery this would be 2,065.24 gCO2-eq/cup. On the other hand, the greenhouse emission from disposal of melamine cup through incineration with and without energy recovery would be 1,601.05 gCO2-eq/cup and 1,601.96 gCO2-eq/cup, respectively.