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Plastic sandwich wedges

  • 25-01-2018 8:11pm
    #1
    mackes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 75 ✭✭


    Just wondering if anyone can tell me the carbon footprint of a totally plastic sandwich wedge container? Trying to figure out the impact for green school flag in my school? I’ve googled it and can’t find a way to measure it? I’m trying to say to primary school children if we use x amount of these per day/per week/per month then that is like the emissions of x number of cars in the same period? We get school lunches and the green schools committee have written to the company asking them to use paper bags instead of these wedges which they have agreed to. I’m hoping to explain in a simple way how much the children will have improved their environment. I will be doing a visual representation by measuring the space they would take up in a given area but m looking for another way also.
    Hope this makes sense! Any help appreciated!


Comments

  • #2
    Markcheese
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,033 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    Weigh a few of them, to get the weight of the plastic... There should be something online about the footprint of different plastics...
    Would they be recyclable?
    There are crowds doing compostable plastic food containers and cutlery ect, (they are dearer)but I think they have to be commercially composted...

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • #3
    L1011
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 72,192 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Markcheese wrote: »
    There are crowds doing compostable plastic food containers and cutlery ect, (they are dearer)but I think they have to be commercially composted...

    For some of these, if they end up in a normal waste stream and are not seperated they end up worse in short to medium term impact due to the methane released in a non-controlled environment. One step forward two steps back sort of thing.


    Could be hard to get figures on the old fashioned plastic sandwich containers as they have really died off - the realistically no better for waste purposes waxed board and cellophane ones seem to have taken over.


  • #4
    Misty Moon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 294 ✭✭Misty Moon


    Found this study (carried out for M&S and 15 years old at this stage but may give you some food for thought and/or ideas for where else to look or what to look for): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/02/00/00/00/24/28/68/24286862.pdf(see page 17 for the energy profile).

    Not what you're looking for but thought it was pretty nice that tetrapak has a carbon footprint calculator for their products on their website: https://www.tetrapak.com/sustainability/environmental-impact/a-value-chain-approach/life-cycle-assessment


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