Life cycle assessment: manufacturing and packaging

The idea

After raw materials are extracted and processed, they are manufactured into a product and then packaged. Manufacturing covers shaping, joining, moulding, assembling and finishing, and it usually needs energy for heating, machinery and transport between factories. Packaging protects the product, keeps it clean, provides information and helps it sell, but it also uses materials such as paper, glass, plastic, steel and aluminium. Each packaging material has its own extraction, processing and disposal impacts. For example, glass bottles are heavy, so transporting them uses more fuel, but glass can be recycled many times; plastic film is light but often made from crude oil and may not be recycled. In a life cycle assessment you compare these impacts across the whole life cycle, using the same functional unit, such as one litre of drink delivered to a customer.

What earns the marks

• Describes manufacturing as converting processed materials into a finished product through shaping, moulding, joining, assembling or finishing.
• Recognises that manufacturing uses energy, often from fossil fuels, and can release pollutants, use water and produce waste.
• Explains the functions of packaging, such as protection, hygiene, containment, information and marketing.
• Identifies packaging materials such as paper, card, glass, plastic, steel and aluminium, and links each to its own extraction, processing and disposal impacts.
• Compares packaging options, for example glass being heavy to transport but widely recyclable, against plastic being light but often fossil-fuel based.
• Places manufacturing and packaging between raw material processing and distribution, use and disposal in the life cycle.
• Uses a functional unit, such as one litre of drink delivered, so that packaging comparisons are fair.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Thinking packaging is always wasteful.

  Put it right: Packaging can reduce food waste and damage, which may lower overall impact.

• Comparing packaging by mass alone.

  Put it right: A light plastic wrapper and a heavy glass bottle must be compared per functional unit, not per gram.

• Forgetting that manufacturing energy and transport between factories are part of this stage, not separate from it.

Exam tips

• Give one benefit and one drawback of a named packaging material to show balanced evaluation.
• State the functional unit explicitly when comparing two packaging options.
• Link each impact to a stage of the life cycle so your answer stays structured and easy to credit.