RT Report
T1 Single-use Supermarket Food Packaging and its Alternatives: Recommendations from Life Cycle Assessments
A1 United Nations Environment Programme, 
A2 Notten, Philippa
A2 Lewis, Yvonne
A2 Burke, Matthew
A2 Corella-Puertas, Elena
A2 Boulay, Anne-Marie
K1 packaging waste
K1 packaging
K1 plastic waste
K1 degradable plastic waste
K1 life cycle
K1 supermarket
SN 978-92-807-3998-5
YR 2022
FD 2022-12
LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41543
UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41543
NO Food packaging’s ever-increasing reliance on single-use plastic formats along with the persistence of plastics in the environment, adds to the long-reaching – and as yet poorly characterized – impacts of plastic pollution on ecosystems and human health. The need for alternatives to single-use packaging is clear. This report compares the environmental impacts of single-use plastic packaging versus alternative options for supermarket food, intended for home consumption. The report is part of a series of meta-analyses of Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies that provides recommendations to policy makers on alternatives to commonly used single-use plastic products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well established tool for assessing the potential environmental impacts associated with a product or service across its whole value chain.
DS UN Environment Document Repository
RD Sep 16, 2026