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ENVIRONMENTAL CASE STUDY

Steel food cans

A healthy and sustainable foodpackaging solutionodays trend toward urbanisation increases the importanceof good packaging methods for foods. Food packagingmust be safe, maintain nutritional value and have a positiveenvironmental impact.

Steel cans meet these requirements in an environmentallyresponsible way. It is a sustainable solution that offerssignificant advantages over alternative food packaging systems.

Food for a changing world

Te worlds population is approaching 7 billion people (from2.5 billion in 1950), with almost all the growth expected in thecities of less-developed countries. In 2008, for the first timein history, more than half of the worlds population is livingin towns and cities. By 2030 this number will swell to almost5 billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa andAsia. Unl ike mega-cities, towns and smaller cities have fewerresources to respond to the magnitude of the change.1

Access to fresh food will become a chal lenge. Tis placesgreater emphasis on reliable packaging, storage anddistribution systems. Food safety, nutritional value andenvironmental impact will become even more important thanthey are today.

Consumers in developed countries have come to expect acontinuous supply of diverse foods. A complex modern globalfood system allows us to live and shop for groceries far awayfrom where the food was produced and processed.

Te movement of products from field to market requiressignificant processing and packaging to preserve food. Also,it takes time to deliver food to the dinner table. About 35% ofperishable food products are lost, or go to waste, after they areharvested.2

ime is a major factor for fresh or frozen food because energyis needed to extend or preserve the life and nutritional value ofthe food until it can be eaten. Te time factor is less importantin the case of canned food, because the nutritional benefits arelocked inside the package.

ime is also an important factor when considering the

variety of food that is available to consumers. Most fruits andvegetables are seasonal. However, canned fruits and vegetablesoffer consumers the variety they want al l year round.

Te World Steel Association (worldsteel) case studies use a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to measure the potential

greenhouse gas impacts from al l stages of manufacture, product use and end-of-life. worldsteel has developed this series of casestudies to demonstrate the reduction of CO

2emissions through the use of high-performance steels.

Steel cans maintain the nutrition in foods for a long time

Environmental impact of food delivery systems

A growing population puts more pressure on the environment.Although foods that are f resh and locally-grown in a

sustainable way will clearly have the smallest carbon footprint,alternative methods for delivering food to consumers willcontinue to be important.

Frozen food and canned food are the two most commondelivery formats. Te unique attr ibutes of steel give canssignificant environmental advantages.

In a 2007 study by the Institute for Environmental Researchand Education, the environmental impacts from canningand freezing green beans were compared using life cycleassessment (LCA).3Te scope of the study covered thepreservation of green beans from the time they are delivered

to the packaging plant until they arrive at the wholesalecustomer.

Te analysis determined that for a wide range of indicators,canned green beans have equal or lower environmental impactsthan the frozen beans (able 1).

Using these results, it can be estimated that each additionaltonne of steel that goes into food cans, displacing a frozenproduct, saves 6.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

If it is assumed that GHG savings associated with green beansare representative for the majority of canned food products,

it is also possible to calculate total savings from the use ofcanned food cans. Each year, this translates into a total GHGemission saving of 68 million tonnes CO

2equivalent when

compared to frozen foods.

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CANNEDVERSUSFROZENSUMMARY(TABLE1)

Impact category Improvement canningover freezing %

Global warming 39

Acidification 100Human health cancer 150

Human health non-cancer 9.1

Eutrophication 1.2

Ozone depletion 1.3

Ecotoxicity 28

Smog 32

Criteria air average 59

otal water use 0.3

Fossil fuel depletion 75

Tese figures compare well with a study on canned food byScientific Certification Systems commissioned by the SteelRecycling Institute. It also showed that canning uses lessenergy than freezing.

Te impact of recycling

One of the most important attributes of steel is that it isinfinitely recyclable without loss of key properties such asstrength, ductility or formability. Steels magnetic propertiesmake it the easiest packaging material to pul l out of the wastestream for recycling.

Country/Region Recycledtonnage (000)

Recyclingrate %

Brazil 284 49

Canada 109 66

European Union 2,560 69

South Korea 101 69

Japan 707 85

South Africa 155 70

urkey 101 35

US 1,592 65China 1,597 75

otal 7,206 68

Footnotes1. State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, United Nations Population Fund, accessed online at www.unfpa.org, on 16

July 2007.2. Argenti, Olivio. Feeding the Cities: Food Supply and Distribution, Achiev ing Urban Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World,

August 2000.3. Canning Green Beans, Ecoprofile of ruitt Brothers Process , Institute for Environmental Research and Education, 2007.4. 2009 Steel Recycling Rates, Steel Recycl ing Institute, accessed online at http://www.recycle-steel .org on 24 May 2011.

5. Industry statistics, Te Aluminum Associat ion, accessed online at http://www.aluminum.orgon 24 May 2011.6. Municipa l Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2009 , US Environmental Protection Agency,accessed online at http://www.epa.gov on 24 May 2011.

7. US bottle recycling rate rises to 27.8 percent, PlasticsNews.com, accessed online at http://plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=20462 on 24 May 20118. American Forest and Paper Associat ion, accessed online at http://www.afandpa.org/ourindustry.aspx?id=438&terms=63.4 on 24 May 2011.

Canning operation in the US

Te steel can is the worlds most recycled container. Teworldwide recycling rate was 68% in 2007. In the US, the

overall recycling rate in 2009 for steel cans was 66.8%4,significantly higher than aluminium (57.4%)5, glass containers(31%)6, plastic bottles (27.8 %)7and paper (63.4%)8.

Globally, more than 7.2 mill ion tonnes of steel packagingwas recycled in 2007. According to worldsteel LCA data, thissaved 11 million tonnes of CO

2equivalents which would have

come from new steel production. Tis saving is equivalentto taking approximately 280,000 cars off the road. Each canrecycled saves about twice its weight of CO

2.

Tis recycling effort resulted in the equivalent savings over26 billion kW hours of electricity, or the electricity needs of

2.5 million households for a year.

ENVIRONMENTAL CASE STUDY

Did you know?

Studies show that canned tomatoescontain as much or more vitamin C thanfresh tomatoes.

It is safe to heat food in shallow andwide-open steel cans in a microwave oven.

Cans are made from tinplated steel sheet

as thin as 0.15 mm. Te layer of tinprevents corrosion of the can.

Last updated: May 2011