NEGATIVE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF PACKAGING PAPER PRODUCTS, IS IT POSSIBLE?

Humanity has only 12 years to start a deep decline in emissions of Greenhouse gases in order to prevent dangerous, non-reversible climate change. Cascading use of wood might be a way to mitigate climate change. In this contribution, we investigate how the cascading use of wood from demolished buildings as a raw material for paper production could influence climate change impact) of packaging paper. We apply a well-defined allocation process from life cycle assessment (LCA) methods (i.e., cut-off based from EN 15804:2013) and also the circular footprint formula as established by the EU Environmental Footprint pilot phase (2013 – 2018). Three different scenarios are tested: 1) paper from pulp made of demolished wood, 2) paper made from paper and 3) paper from virgin pulp. This contribution demonstrates how the carbon footprint of packaging paper can be influenced by circular economy principles and, especially, how the cascading use of wood compares to other typical raw materials for packaging paper production.