Boas, Simon H.

Langen, Håkon

Niero, Monia

Olsen, Stig Irving

Hoffmeyer, Simon B.

Online Research Database In Technology

                       General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.  • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal   If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.     Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Nov 08, 2017The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in aclosed loop?Niero, Monia; Hoffmeyer, Simon B. ; Langen, Håkon; Olsen, Stig IrvingPublished in:Book of Abstracts. DTU's Sustain Conference 2015Publication date:2015Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink back to DTU OrbitCitation (APA):Niero, M., Hoffmeyer, S. B., Langen, H., & Olsen, S. I. (2015). The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in thecircular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop? In Book of Abstracts. DTU's Sustain Conference 2015 [A-11] Technical University of Denmark (DTU).   The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop?  Monia Niero*1, Simon B. Hoffmeyer2, Håkon Langen2, Stig I. Olsen1   1: DTU Management; 2: Carlsberg Breweries A/S  *Corresponding author email: monni@dtu.dk The aim of this work is to show how the Cradle to Cradle® (C2C) design framework [1] can inspire Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in considering the multiple future uses of resources in continuous loops for beverage packaging, e.g. aluminium cans. The C2C design framework inspired the creation of the Carlsberg Circular Community, a cooperation platform launched in January 2014 featuring Carlsberg Group, the fourth largest global brewer in the world, and a selection of global partners with the ultimate aim to eliminate the concept of waste by rethinking the design of packaging, including the aluminium can [2]. In its current status the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) modelling of aluminium processes is based on a pure aluminium flow, neglecting the presence of alloying elements [3]. However, within the circular economy context, the C2C vision calls for improving the quality and value of materials, through a characterization of chemicals included in the products and the development of an optimization strategy [1].  In this study, we focused on aluminium cans, which are made of two parts: the can body (typically A3004 alloy) and the lid (typically 5182 alloy). We quantified the influence of alloying elements on the overall environmental performances of aluminium can recycling and performed a LCA comparing different sources of aluminium: primary aluminium and mixed scraps, Used Beverage Can (UBC) scrap, mixed aluminium packaging scrap and building scrap [4]. The LCA results showed that the lowest environmental impacts come from the use of UBC scrap [5]. This suggests that in a circular economy context for aluminium cans it is better to be in a closed product loop. References: [1] McDonough W., Braungart M. (2002) Cradle to cradle—Remaking the way we make things. New York, NY, USA: North Point Press. [2] Carlsberg Group (2015) Carlsberg Group CSR Report 2014; 2015; 1–57. [3] EAA (2013) Environmental Profile Report for the European Aluminium Industry. Life Cycle Inventory data for aluminium production and transformation processes in Europe. European Aluminium Association; 1-78. [4] Niero M., Boas S.H., Langen H., Olsen S.I. The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop? – In: Scalbi, S., Dominici Loprieno A., Sposato, P. (Eds.), International conference on Life Cycle Assessment as reference methodology for assessing supply chains and supporting global sustainability challenges LCA FOR “FEEDING THE PLANET AND ENERGY FOR LIFE”, Stresa, 6-07th October 2015 - Milano, Expo 2015, 8th October 2015, pp. 351-354, ISBN 978-88-8286-321-0 [5] Niero M., Olsen S.I. (2015) Circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed product loop? A Life Cycle Assessment of aluminium cans with inclusion of alloying elements. Submitted to Resources, Conservation and Recycling. Sustain DTU Abstract: A-11

The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop?

In the context of circular economy the focus is not only on recycling from a quantitative point of view, but also on improving the quality of materials. We considered the case of aluminium cans, and quantified the influence of alloying elements on the overall environmental performances of aluminium can recycling. We performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comparing different sources of aluminium: primary aluminium and mixed scraps, Used Beverage Can (UBC) scrap, mixed aluminium packaging scrap and building scrap. The preliminary LCA results show that the lowest environmental impacts come from the use of UBC scraps. This suggests that in a circular economy context for aluminium cans it is better to be in a closed loop

The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop

http://orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/118779713/LCA2015.pdf

The Hamlet dilemma for aluminium cans in the circular economy: to be or not to be in a closed loop

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