Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Packaging Materials for Tomato-Based Products to Pave the Way for Increasing Tomato Processing Industry Sustainability

Background: The tomato processing industry is a vital sector, with tomatoes being the primary vegetable for industrial transformation. To individuate potential actions to make the tomato processing industry more sustainable, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for an Italian tomato processing company located in southern Italy. Methods: Foreground data were collected from the company, while background data were sourced from the Ecoinvent database. The assessment employed the CML-IA baseline (V3.5) method for midpoints and IMPACT 2002+ for endpoints. Results: The research revealed that a can of peeled tomatoes (400 g) and a bottle of tomato puree (500 g) were responsible for global warming potential (GWP) of 0.666 kg CO2eq and 0.479 kg CO2eq, respectively. The packaging phase is the primary contributor to adverse environmental effects and has been considered as the primary focus for improvement. The end-of-life (EoL) scenarios demonstrated that recycling packaging materials could significantly reduce CO2 emissions by 46% and 48% for metal and glass packaging, respectively. Conclusions: Moreover, the replacement of tinplate cans with glass jars as alternative packaging materials for peeled tomatoes, and glass bottles with carton-based containers or stand-up pouches as alternative packaging materials for tomato puree emerged as more environmentally friendly options across various environmental impact categories.