Plastic (PET) vs bioplastic (PLA) or refillable aluminium bottles - What is the most sustainable choice for drinking water? A life-cycle (LCA) analysis.

Nowadays, the most important tool to evaluate the environmental impact of both petro-plastics and bioplastics is the life cycle analysis (LCA). LCA determines the overall impact on the environment by defining, calculation and analyzing all the input and output directly related to production, utilization, and disposal of a product or a process. In this work, a LCA (cradle to grave) of bottles for drinking water was developed on three scenarios: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, as conventional packaging material for outdoor drinking water, polylactic acid (PLA) bottles, as alternative and innovative biodegradable packaging and aluminum bottle, as reusable and almost infinitely refilling packaging.