Abstract:

This article reports on the carbon footprint of production processes of polypropylene nonwoven
shopping bags made out of two different manufacturing technologies (Products
A and B, made by the conventional sewing and thermal joining methods) assessed from
their cradle to the gate stage using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique. This study
was performed based on the comprehensive Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of two different
manufacturing sequences obtained from a detailed in-field study of the nonwoven PP bag
manufacturing industry. The environmental impacts were quantified by means of the IPCC
2007 GWP V 1.1. method in SIMAPRO 7.2. The carbon footprint expressed in terms of the
global warming potential (kg CO2 values for 20 and 100 years), calculated by IPCC 2007
methods, was considered as a directive to compare the environmental impact of these bags,
manufactured by the two different technologies, and a detailed explanation of the results is
provided in this paper. From the results of carbon footprint modelling, product A, made by
conventional sewing technology, was found to be better than product B, made by thermal
technology. A detailed explanation of the results of the environmental performance of these
bags as well as the hot-spots in both production technologies are discussed to a greater
extent in this article.