Beverage crates: A life cycle assessment case study for circular economy in Germany

For most sectors of the economy, circular economy is still a long way off. However, in the case of the beverage crates used by fritz-kulturgüter to transport fritz-kola between bottling points, wholesalers, and retailers, circular economy becomes the building block in the new material value chain. The older crates, made of high-density polyethylene, have been in circulation for over a decade and are reaching the end of their service life. Moreover, since the market for Fritz-kola has grown steadily, so has the demand for these beverage crates. Fritz-kulturgüter decided to kill two birds with one stone by designing new crates as a part of the Öko2Box project. The new crates use shredded old crates as reinforcement to reduce their overall environmental impacts. The geometry of the crates has also been optimized to reduce weight and to ensure that they meet performance standards. In addition, novel biobased dyes replace the existing dyes to further reduce their environmental impact. Life cycle assessment shows that the new crates have lower environmental impacts both during the production phase as well as during the use-phase. The circular footprint formula has been implemented to allocate the impacts of the recycling process between the two life cycles.