Page 163 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
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Australia and New Zealand, and Simplot Australia. With additional grant support from the
Australian government through the Department of the Environment and Water Resources, and
the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, a prototype tool
was developed to confirm the algorithms, data requirements and test functionality. A full Inter-
net-based tool was then commissioned and developed (programming undertaken by WSP Envi-
ronmental), opening for subscriptions in September 2007 and publicly launched in March 2008.
A program of further research and development is underway (2009) to roll out functionality
globally and across other sectors.
Importantly, packaging technologists and environmental managers were consulted
throughout PIQET’s development, through regular meetings with the research team to identify
the features and usability of the tool. The needs of other stakeholders and business drivers were
also considered, along with the functional needs criteria discussed above. The resultant PIQET
version 1.1 provides a 10 minute to 20 minute turn-around time and:
s assesses the environmental impact of different packaging formats
s evaluates and compares new and existing packaging systems and materials, and explores
for better options
s identifies environmental issues associated with particular materials at an early
development stage
s measures and reports against a range of environmental performance indicators for
internal and external stakeholders such as customers and regulators
s benchmarks packaging performance over time
s sets targets, standards and specifications
s integrates environmental decision-making into the packaging design process
s identifies priority areas for improvement, for example:
− the points where impacts occur in the life cycle
− which packaging components or systems (e.g. the subretail, retail, merchandising
and traded unit levels) have the highest impacts
s evaluates the effect of recyclability and recycling rates on the overall environmental
impact of packaging materials
s provides due diligence in demonstrating a range of options in the design stage
s can be used to facilitate discussions with supply chain partners and other stakeholders
for purposes of education, awareness building and negotiation.

Individual packaging components that make up the packaging system are modelled in
PIQET at the subretail, retail, merchandising or traded-unit level (Fig. 11.2).

Subretail unit (inside Retail unit)

Retail unit (inside Merchandising unit)

Merchandising unit (inside Traded unit)

Traded unit (inside Pallet unit)

Pallet unit

Figure 11.2 Standardised packaging format levels used in the Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation
Tool (PIQET).

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