Material and technical research

The LCA Centre ensures customers understand the composition of the packaging they offer and what claims they can make about it. To this end, The LCA Centre has a forensic laboratory managed by a team of highly trained packaging engineers and chemists and equipped with advanced instruments (such as FTIR, XRF, DSC and Raman) to perform various practical tests.

For future-proof packaging, it is essential to understand the composition, processing and functionality of packaging based on new materials and/or systems. When packaging performs incorrectly on the packing line, these instruments provide insight into the cause.

Life cycle assessment of packaging

The LCA Centre specialises in conducting LCAs for packaging, especially food packaging. But more and more companies in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries are also using these studies.

When performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of packaging, it is important to collect all the necessary data. The LCA Centre has a laboratory with all the instruments required to examine packaging and materials, thus supplementing missing information. Because LCAs are complex and require a lot of technical knowledge, The LCA Centre employs experts with the necessary qualifications who know exactly how to analyse packaging and materials.

Preparing for future legislation

Packaging regulations change constantly. Packaging must not only comply with current legislation, but must also be future-proof. In order to be informed of developments as early as possible, The LCA Centre is closely involved in decision-making in the EU, and is an active member of the International Association of Packaging Research Institutes (IAPRI).

By proactively sharing this knowledge with customers and Paardekooper, they gain the necessary insights to prepare for these changes. And by including this information in the LCA studies, we also help in the investment decision process.

René Klaassen
Strategic Buyer

‘For me in my role, The LCA Centre is of great importance to suppliers. When I introduce a supplier to them, it immediately focuses their mind, as they see the depth of analysis and knowledge we have available, this acts to keep them on their toes. We demonstrate the instrumentation we have available to determine, for example, content or deviations in the material. This means we can offer the customer a guarantee that the product meets their requirements.’

Jacco van Dijk
Purchasing Director

adds: ‘In a specific case from a supplier, we were confronted with ‘component costing’. By carrying out research in The LCA Centre, we discovered cheap fillers were being used in a product. This allowed us to provide a better estimate of the true costs of the product and to enter into negotiations with the supplier from a strong position. In a competitive packaging market, such insights are essential.’

Gerard de Niet
Senior Trader Agri

‘The pallet corner protectors market is very competitive and quality often varies. Pallet corner protectors are usually sold based on weight or thickness despite the actual quality of a pallet corner protector being measured by the breaking force expressed in Newtons. Working closely with The LCA Centre, we have designed a protocol to test the breaking strength. Our customers are very happy with this insight. The LCA Centre also offers this test to our competitors to ensure there is a level playing field and customers can have insight into the quality of the pallet corner protectors they purchase.’

Dr. Alan Campbell
Technical Director of The LCA Centre

‘We are often asked to share our knowledge. Last year, for example, we gave presentations to trade associations, such as Food Packaging Association, Verskenners, Metal Packaging Association, International Fresh Produce Association, IAPRI and KIDV and retailers, such as Tesco, Lidl USA, Edeka, Morrisons, AH, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Asda, Lidl Germany and Albertsons. We also like to share our knowledge with the next generation of specialists; for example, we have given guest lectures at the Universities of Utrecht, Ghent and Nijmegen.’

Packaging advice

The LCA Centre advises companies on how to improve their packaging. For example, by adapting designs to make packaging more functional and sustainable. More and more companies are also using their own LCA tools and are receiving various LCA studies from suppliers. Our experts are therefore increasingly helping interpret multiple LCA studies for the same type of packaging. There will never be a single LCA methodology for packaging, so we teach packaging decision makers how to address this.

Merel de Vries
Sustainability Advisor Horti

‘The LCA Centre has helped our team by creating impact calculations for flower sleeves, allowing us to now share accurate and reliable data with our customers. Based on this, The LCA Centre has developed a practical tool that allows us to visualise the impact of different sizes of the same flower sleeve. In addition, The LCA Centre also supports our team by analysing the material composition of products that, for example, claim to be plastic-free. This allows us to determine whether these claims are correct before we communicate them.’

At the beginning of this century, Paardekooper noticed increasing concerns being raised about the impact of packaging on the environment. Many companies at the time opted for ‘green’ alternatives, but Paardekooper soon discovered that choosing a different material did not always reduce the environmental impact of the packaging. And because it is important to be able to measure the environmental impact, Paardekooper decided, together with the Dutch organisation Natuur & Milieu, to develop an LCA method specifically for measuring the environmental impact of packaging. This is how The LCA Centre was created, an independent part of Koninklijke Paardekooper Group, which provides packaging-related advice to governments, NGOs, academic institutions and the packaging industry.

The LCA Centre’s primary tasks are to conduct packaging LCA studies, material and technical research, providing packaging advice and gaining insight into future legislation and regulations, both for Paardekooper itself and for external parties. We would like to provide some more insight into these four services and their added value for Paardekooper and other organisations.