Sustainability Report
Below is an industry first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). An EPD tells the lifecycle story of a product in a single, comprehensive report. It quantifiably demonstrates the environmental impacts of our Lightly Spiced Rum. The below report is in FULL, to show our full transparency and authenticity towards our sustainability values. Please analyse, skim, digest and enjoy!
Any comments or suggestions will be very much appreciated! russ@twodriftersdistillery.com
Environmental Product Declaration
According to ISO 14025, ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15804
Two Drifters Distillery - Lightly Spiced Rum 70 cL
Written by Russ Wakeham Consultancy Ltd
Third party verified by My Carbon
Two Drifters Distillery is making award-winning rum with a carbon negative footprint. They are fully aware that issues facing the climate can only be reduced if businesses, no matter what size, start to measure and be openly transparent about their actions.
The purpose of this and other studies commissioned by Two Drifters Distillery was to determine the full environmental impact of their business activities. The results will be used to help calculate the amount of carbon that Two Drifters needs to remove from the atmosphere through Direct Air Capture technology so that they can be a net zero carbon company. The results will also be published on the Two Drifters website, both for customers wishing to better understand their own environmental impacts, and to be used as an example for other companies wishing to study their own footprints.
The following report consists of the Life Cycle Assessment of the
Lightly Spiced Rum, 70 cL
|
EPD Program and Program Operator Name, Address, Logo and Website |
Russ Wakeham Consultancy, |
|
Manufacturer Name and Address |
Two Drifters Distillery Ltd Unit 5 Skyways Business Park, Fair Oak Cl, Exeter EX5 2UL |
|
Declaration Number |
220526.0002.1 |
|
Declared Product & Functional Unit |
Packaged 70 cL bottle of Two Drifters Lightly Spiced Rum |
|
Description of Product Application/Use |
Glass bottle containing Lightly Spiced Rum by Two Drifters Distillery. |
|
Date of Issue |
14 July 2022 |
|
Period of Validity |
1 Years |
|
EPD Type |
Product-specific |
|
EPD Scope |
Cradle-to-grave |
|
LCA Software & Version Number |
OpenLCA Version 1.11.0 copyright © 2007-2022 GreenDelta |
|
LCA Database & Version Number |
EF 3.0, OpenLCA version 1.11.0 copyright © 2007-2022 GreenDelta |
|
LCIA Methodology & Version Number |
EF 3.0, OpenLCA version 1.11.0 copyright © 2007-2022 GreenDelta |
1. Product Definition and Information
1.1. Description of Company
Two Drifters Distillery is making award-winning rum with a negative carbon footprint. They are fully aware that issues facing the climate can only be reduced if businesses, no matter what size, start to measure and be openly transparent about their actions. Thus, wanting to lead by example, Two Drifters is completing Life Cycle Assessments of its products, through the services of Russ Wakeham Consultancy, in order to evaluate the environmental impacts of the company.
1.2. Product Description
Natural Cork
FCS Wooden top
Tamper seal
100% compostable
Carbon negative rum
Glass bottle
Light and British Made
Label
95% sugarcane fibre (waste material) and 5% hemp & linen
1.3. Application
Consumed, sold to retail outlets, bars, hotels, restaurants.
1.4. Declaration of Methodological Framework
The data is retrieved from a cradle to grave LCA study. The description of study boundaries is declared in Section 4.1.
1.5. Technical Requirements
About the technical specs – Rum
|
Name |
Value |
Unit |
|
Alcohol Type |
Rum |
|
|
Raw Material |
Molasses |
|
|
Alcohol % |
40.00 |
% ABV |
|
Glass Bottle |
70 |
cL |
1.6. Market Placement / Application Rules
N/A
1.7. Material Composition
|
Process |
Ingredient |
% Mass |
|
Fermentation |
Molasses |
97.21 |
|
Yeast |
0.50 |
|
|
Diammonium phosphate |
0.06 |
|
|
Calcium sulfate |
0.02 |
|
|
Magnesium sulphate |
0.01 |
|
|
|
Silcon-based antifoam |
0.01 |
|
Flavouring |
Burnt sugar |
0.09 |
|
Mixed spice |
0.08 |
|
|
Vanilla |
0.04 |
|
|
Star anise |
0.03 |
1.8. Manufacturing
The Two Drifters Lightly Spiced Rum is made at the Two Drifters Distillery at Unit 5 Skyways Business Park, Fair Oak Cl, Exeter EX5 2UL.
1.9. Packaging
The packaging of the product depends on the quantity ordered. Flexi-hex bottle packaging is used for both small and large quantities. Flexi-hex is a carbon neutral, plastic free, and recyclable packaging. Therefore, it does not increase the carbon footprint of the Lightly Spiced Rum.
1.10. Transportation
The transportation of the product depends on the location of the customer. All transportations within the UK are completed through the services of DPD, which are carbon neutral. The average distance travelled in the UK is assumed to be 100 miles. Pallet deliveries of Two Drifters Lightly Spiced Rum are made and an allocation for the known journey and average HGV emission is included.
1.11. Product Installation
N/A
1.12. Use
Rum should not be consumed post expiration date, nor from individuals under the legal drinking age (18 in the UK).
1.13. Reference Service Life
Indefinite
1.14. Reuse, Recycling, and Energy Recovery
The bottle of rum can be reused and recycled. The glass is highly recyclable, and the cork, label and tamper seal used are compostable.
1.15. Disposal
At end of life the packaging should be recycled, labelling on the bottle encourages the consumer to recycle responsibly. The bottle is expected to be recycled or reused. A glass recycling bin is suitable for this purpose. Disposal in municipal landfill or commercial incineration is permissible in accordance with local regulations. However, this is discouraged.
2. Life Cycle Assessment Background Information
2.1. Functional or Declared unit
A packaged 70 cL bottle of Two Drifters Lightly Spiced Rum.
2.2. System Boundary
Life-cycle stages according to the EN standard are separated by each stage of the product’s life cycle. The system boundaries include:
Product stage
|
A1: |
Raw material extraction and processing, processing of secondary material input (e.g., recycling processes) |
|
A2: |
Transport to the manufacturer |
|
A3: |
Manufacturing |
Stages A1, A2 and A3 may be declared as one aggregated module A1-A3. All stages include the provision of all materials, products, and energy, as well as waste processing up to the end-of-waste state or disposal of final residues during the product stage.
Construction Process Stage
|
A4: |
Transport to the building site |
|
A5: |
Installation into the building |
Stages A4 and A5 include all impacts and aspects related to any losses during this construction process stage.
Use Stage
|
B1: |
Use or application of the installed product |
|
B2: |
Maintenance |
|
B3: |
Repair |
|
B4: |
Replacement |
|
B5: |
Refurbishment |
|
B6: |
Operational energy use |
|
B7: |
Operational water use |
End of life stage
|
C1: |
Deconstruction, demolition |
|
C2: |
Transport to waste processing |
|
C3: |
Waste processing for reuse, recovery and/or recycling. |
|
C4: |
Disposal |
All C stages include provision and transport, provision of all materials, products and related energy and water use.
Benefits and loads beyond the system boundary
|
D: |
Reuse recovery and/or recycling potentials expressed as net impacts and benefits. |
Module D is an additional module which can be included in the scope of the assessment. It allows supplementary information beyond the product lifecycle to be considered.
Different life cycle stages are either mandatory or optional for a different scope of LCA. In product level assessments only modules A1 to A3 are mandatory under EN 15804+A1, while all other phases are optional. This will change with EN 15804+A2 where A1-A3 and C1-C4 will become mandatory for most products. In building level calculations (for instance according to EN 15978) the idea is to take into account all the meaningful impacts over the lifetime of the building. However, different certifications and calculation systems may limit the modules calculated.
2.3. Estimates and assumptions
In the process of assessing the life cycle of a product there is always a factor of uncertainty. In order to maximize the efficacy of the LCA, Russ Wakeham Consultancy take estimates on uncertain areas, supported with secondary research on the topic.
The LCA of Two Drifters Lightly Spiced Rum has certain areas of uncertainty where estimates have to be done. These consist of whether the bottle of the rum is actually being recycled, as the customer is responsible of that. Additionally, due to the vast number of glass recycling plants, and methods of recycling, it is uncertain how much energy, and what type, is used to recycle the bottles.
2.4. Cut-off criteria
In accordance with calculation rules for life cycle assessments, the cut-off criteria is less than 1% of the total mass per unit process, the sum of which shall not exceed 5% of either energy or mass. If a flow that could be excluded is considered to have significant environmental impact, it will be included regardless. No flows within this product life cycle assessment were excluded.
2.5. Data Sources and Quality
The datasets for materials upstream from manufacturing are a combination of information from open access databases used in OpenLCA, supplier provided data, and UK government reported emissions standards. The temporal quality of the data is very good, with the emissions standards and manufacturing data being from 2021 and the OpenLCA background data being from no earlier than 2018. Among the datasets used are the following:
Agribalyse v3.0.1
EU Environmental Footprints v4
UK Conversion Factors 2021
Ecoinvent v3.7 LCIA methods
Full OpenLCA LCIA results for generic global values for energy use, water use, and end-of-life scenarios were adjusted using a conversion factor in order to match with UK-specific reports for carbon alone.
|
Database |
Ingredient/component |
OpenLCA database value used |
|
agribalyse |
Lorry transport |
Transport, freight, lorry 3.5-7.5 metric ton, EURO5 {GLO}| market for | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent. |
|
agribalyse |
Sea transport |
Transport, freight, sea, transoceanic tanker {GLO}| processing | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent |
|
agribalyse |
Recycling transportation |
Diesel {Europe without Switzerland}| market for | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent |
|
EF_secondarydata |
Water |
Drinking water |
|
Elcd_greendelta |
Electricity mix |
electricity mix, nondistillery proportion 34.1% |
|
Needs_18 |
Electricity, Fresnel CHP for cooling at power plant, |
electricity, nondistillery proportion 65.9% |
|
agribalyse |
Natural gas |
Heat, central or small-scale, natural gas {Europe without Switzerland}| heat production, natural gas, at boiler condensing modulating <100kW | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent |
|
Elcd_greendelta |
Biodegradable waste recovery |
waste incineration of biodegradable waste fraction in municipal solid waste (MSW) |
|
agribalyse |
Yeast |
Baker's yeast, compressed, processed in FR | Ambient (long) | Cardboard | at distribution/FR |
|
agribalyse |
Anise |
Cloves, consumption mix/FR U |
|
agribalyse |
DAP |
Diammonium phosphate (DAP) (with 18% N, 46% P2O5), at plant (WFLDB 3.5)/RER U |
|
EF_secondarydata |
MgSO4, CaSO4 |
Magnesium sulfate_at plant_EU-28+3_S |
|
agribalyse |
Spices |
Mix of 4 spices, at plant/FR U |
|
agribalyse |
Molasses |
Molasses, from sugarcane, from Brazil, at feed plant/FR S |
|
agribalyse |
Acetic Acid |
Peracetic acid, at plant/RER U (ACYVIA) |
|
EF_secondarydata |
Caustic |
sodium hydroxide |
|
agribalyse |
Pineapple syrup, Caramel syrup |
Syrup (mint, strawberries flavouredetc.), with sugar diluted in water, processed in FR | Ambient (long) | PET | at distribution/FR |
|
agribalyse |
Burnt sugar, sugar syrup |
Syrup, with sugar (to be diluted), processed in FR | Ambient (average) | Glass | at packaging/FR |
|
agribalyse |
Vanilla |
Vanilla, aqueous extract, processed in FR | Ambient (long) | PVC | at packaging/FR |
|
EF_secondarydata |
Glass |
Glass (formed & finished) |
|
USDA_1901009 |
Tariff stickers |
Paper, freesheet, coated, average production, at mill |
|
agribalyse |
Aluminium cap |
Screw cap, aluminium, for wine bottle, at plant/RER U (ACYVIA) |
|
agribalyse |
Tamper seal |
Carboxymethyl cellulose, powder {GLO}| market for | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent |
|
agribalyse |
Cork stopper |
Natural cork stopper, at plant/RER U (ACYVIA) |
|
User based |
Labels |
hemp and sugar cane paper (5% hemp fibres, 95%) |
|
agribalyse |
Label component |
agricultural-->Plant production-->cereals-->transformation-->Hemp fibre, without processing/FR U-->imported from SimaPro |
|
Exiobase3 |
Label component |
elementary flows-->resource-->unspecified-->Domestic Extraction Used - Primary Crops - Sugar Cane |
|
UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting |
Transportation, Lorry; Transportation, ship; electricity; recycling transportation; diesel; drinking water; natural gas |
Diesel, lorry shipping, global shipping, electricity grid, natural gas, drinking water
|
|
EF_secondarydata |
Natural gas |
Heat, central or small-scale, natural gas {Europe without Switzerland}| heat production, natural gas, at boiler condensing modulating <100kW | Cut-off, S - Copied from Ecoinvent |
|
EF_secondarydata |
Diesel |
Diesel, burned in lorry, EURO5 (WFLDB 3.1)/RER U |
Values from the ‘UK government GHG conversion factors for company reporting’ publication were used to convert OpenLCA outputs to reflect UK emissions reporting. The conversion factors were based upon the comparison of reported CO2e by the UK government and the OpenLCA Climate Change CO2e category value. This new conversion factor was then
multiplied across each impact category in the OpenLCA LCA results to determine the full life cycle assessment of each value used from the ‘UK government[…]’ publication. The conversion factors are detailed in the below table. UK grid electricity was determined using a mix of two electricity sources in OpenLCA to achieve the UK transmission emission factor, as determined in the publication ‘Life Cycle Assessment of the Transmission Network in Great Britain’ (G Harrison et al, 2020). Two Drifters Distillery uses green tariff electricity, so all electricity used in the distillery was calculated as having the emission factor of transmission only, and two additional electricity sources in OpenLCA (wind and thermal) were consulted for this transmission mix.
|
|
OpenLCA (kg CO2e) |
UK published emission factor (kg CO2e) |
Conversion Factor |
|
Ship, transportation |
6.01E-06/ kg*km |
9.00E-6/ kg*km
|
1.50 |
|
Lorry, transportation |
0.00052/ kg*km |
0.0002078/kg*km |
0.3996 |
|
Diesel |
3.23293/ kg |
2.96907/ kg |
0.91838 |
|
Green tariff electricity |
0.21233/kWh
|
0.01879/kWh |
0.088511 |
|
Electricity mix |
2.44746/kWh |
0.21233/kWh |
0.7075 |
|
Electricity, Fresnel CHP |
0.06975/kWh |
0.21233/kWh |
0.2925 |
|
Natural gas |
0.26085/kWh |
0.20297/kWh |
0.7781 |
|
Drinking water |
0.00058/L |
0.000149/L |
0.2569 |
2.6. Market Placement / Application Rules
N/A
2.7. Period Under Review
1st of January 2021 – 31st December 2021
2.8. Allocation
The impact method chosen for this assessment is EF 3.0, accessed through the Ecoinvent v3.7 LCIA methods database. The background data used in this assessment used a combination of power mix and transportation mix data as published in the 2021 UK government conversion factors report, and data for upstream manufacturing was derived from OpenLCA opensource databases. Regarding co-products, after the molasses has been fermented the stillage is sent away to be mixed with grain for cattle feed. This could be considered a coproduct, but the impact of this recycling has not yet been calculated. As such, no credits are taken for recycling of production waste at this time. The full production stage is considered, including cleaning chemicals, energy and water.
3. Life Cycle Assessment Scenarios
A1-A3: Product Stage
Table 3.1. Transportation of ingredients to the facility.
|
Item |
Method of Transport |
Value |
Unit |
Method of Transport |
Value |
Unit |
|
Molasses |
Lorry |
340 |
km |
Ship |
12118 |
km |
|
Yeast |
Lorry |
48 |
km |
Lorry |
631 |
km |
|
Diammonium phosphate |
Lorry |
49 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Calcium sulfate |
Lorry |
345 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Magnesium sulphate |
Lorry |
345 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Silcon-based antifoam |
Lorry |
345 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Burnt sugar |
Lorry |
284 |
km |
Truck |
1800 |
km |
|
Mixed spice |
Lorry |
295 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Vanilla |
Lorry |
295 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Star anise |
Lorry |
477 |
km |
Ship |
18335 |
km |
|
Peracetic acid |
Lorry |
345 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Caustic soda |
Lorry |
345 |
km |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Table 3.2. Ingredients per functional unit, including electricity and water used in manufacturing.
|
Item |
Value |
Unit |
|
Molasses |
0.906009 |
kg |
|
Yeast |
0.004622 |
kg |
|
Diammonium phosphate |
0.000555 |
kg |
|
Calcium sulfate |
0.000231 |
kg |
|
Magnesium sulphate |
0.000116 |
kg |
|
Silicon-based antifoam |
6.16E-05 |
kg |
|
Burnt sugar |
0.000847 |
kg |
|
Mixed spice |
0.000749 |
kg |
|
Vanilla |
0.000399 |
kg |
|
Star anise |
0.000252 |
kg |
|
Electricity |
1.363636 |
kWh |
|
Water |
|
L |
|
Peracetic acid |
0.00761 |
kg |
|
Caustic soda |
0.010566 |
kg |
Table 3.3. Transportation of packaging components to the facility.
|
Item |
Method of transport |
Value |
Unit |
|
Bottle glass |
Lorry |
446 |
mi |
|
Natural cork |
Lorry |
1753 |
mi |
|
Hemp and sugarcane label |
Lorry |
111.9 |
mi |
|
Tamper seal (cellulose) |
Lorry |
232 |
mi |
|
Tamber seal sticker |
Lorry |
232 |
mi |
Table 3.4. Components per packaging unit.
|
Item |
Amount |
Unit |
|
Bottle glass |
0.52 |
kg |
|
Natural cork |
0.009 |
kg |
|
Hemp and sugarcane label |
0.00421 |
kg |
|
Tamper seal (cellulose) |
0.00191 |
kg |
|
Tamper seal sticker |
0.00032 |
kg |
A4-A5: Construction Phase
A4: Transportation to customer of finished product.
Nearly all deliveries are made by carbon-neutral methods, except for a few large retailer shipments that were made by lorry. The emission factor was chosen based on the assumption that a 13-ton lorry made the journey with an average fill, as reported by the UK government GHG conversion factors for company reporting report from 2019.
Table 3.5. Total shipments that were not carbon neutral for 2021.
|
Client number |
Number of pallets |
Total bottles |
Total weight (kg) |
Distance (miles) |
|
1 |
1 |
210 |
289.5 |
82.7 |
|
2 |
9 |
1416 |
1997.2 |
302 |
|
3 |
1 |
120 |
174 |
191 |
|
4 |
3 |
144 |
244.8 |
127 |
|
5 |
2 |
870 |
1156.5 |
493 |
A5: Installation.
It is assumed that the bottle of rum required no installation, and the emissions produced from non-carbon neutral transport were averaged across all bottles sold.
B1-B7: Use Phase
B1-B7 Use phase: Zero allocations were considered for B1-B5 due to the nature of rum consumption. However, B6 and B7 were calculated with proportional considerations to the distribution locations. Two Drifters send rum to off-trade retailers (brick-and-mortar shops), on-trade retailers (bars), directly to consumers, and to large distributors.
The electricity, water and transportation use of each distribution location type were calculated below. Sales data was then used to determine how many bottles were sent to each distribution location, and to create the proportional composition of an average bottle’s fate [Table 3.10]. This was then used to calculate the average bottle’s use phase footprint.
For on-trade distribution: It was assumed that each 70 cL bottle sold was displayed using 2 LED lights with a shelf-life span of 2.3 weeks (based on a consumption of 0.3 L/week), and that each 30 mL shot was served neat with one 30 cm3 ice cube.
Table 3.6. On-trade display electricity cost calculation.
|
|
Value |
Unit |
|
String of 360 lights |
0.006 |
kWh/hr |
|
Energy consumption per bulb |
1.67E-5 |
kWh/hr |
|
Energy consumption per bulb per week, assuming 11 hours per day for 6 days |
1.10E-3 |
kWh/wk |
|
Energy for 2 bulbs for 2.3 weeks |
5.06E-3 |
kWh/bottle
|
Table 3.7. On trade use of ice, water and electricity calculation.
|
|
Value |
Unit |
|
Heat capacity of water |
4182 |
J/kg*˚C |
|
Temperature change from 20 C to –18 C |
38 |
˚C |
|
Energy required to make 1 kg of ice |
110.05 |
J |
|
Volume of 1 ice cube |
30 |
cm3 |
|
Weight of 1 ice cube |
27.6 |
g |
|
Energy required to make 1 ice cube |
3.037 |
J |
|
Freezer efficiency |
30 |
% |
|
Electricity use to make 1 ice cube |
8.20 E-7 |
kWh |
|
Electricity use to make 23 ice cubes |
1.89E-5 |
kWh |
|
Water use to make 23 ice cubes |
634.8 |
g |
For off-trade (store) distribution: It was assumed that each 70 cl bottle had a shelf life of 1 month before selling, and that the average store had a total area of 78 m2, of which 28 m2 is covered by shelving units with 5 shelves each, amounting to 1,400 m2 of shelf space. With a diameter of 8 cm2, 0.0064 m2 was estimated as the footprint for each bottle.
Table 3.8. Off-trade brick and mortar store energy use calculation.
|
|
Value |
Unit |
|
Electricity Use* |
15.39 |
kWh/m2*year |
|
Natural Gas Use* |
9.42 |
m3/m2*year |
|
Annual electricity for average store |
1200.62 |
kWh/year |
|
Annual natural Gas for average store |
734.635 |
m3/year |
|
Monthly electricity for average store |
100.05 |
kWh/month |
|
Monthly natural gas for average store |
61.22 |
m3/month |
|
Shelving space available at any one point in time |
1,400 |
m2 |
|
Bottle Footprint |
0.0064 |
m2 |
|
Electricity Use per bottle to display for 1 month |
0.000457 |
kWh/0.0064 m2*month |
|
Natural Gas use per bottle to display for 1 month |
0.00028 |
m3/0.0064 m2*month |
|
*Values converted from publication by Esource customer direct, https://dsoelectric.com/sites/dsoelectric/files/My%20Business/retail.pdf |
||
For regional distribution and wholesale suppliers (warehouse): Assumed a medium-sized warehouse operating at 70% capacity with high-storage technology with VNA devices operating only in the storage area (up to 18 m (approximately 15 m of reaching) and with aisles of 1.9 m), other phases being supported by counterbalanced forklifts. It is also assumed that bottles will last an average of 1 month in the warehouse.
Table 3.9. Warehouse energy use calculations for bottles sold to regional distributors.
|
|
Value |
Unit |
|
Warehouse capacity* |
42,930 |
m3 |
|
Average annual energy consumption* |
131,287 |
kWh/year |
|
Used Capacity |
70 |
% |
|
Energy consumption per m3 |
4.368 |
kWh/ m3*year |
|
Energy consumption per m3 per month |
0.3640 |
kWh/ m3*month |
|
Length of stay of rum |
1 |
month |
|
Size of a box (6 bottles) of rum |
0.0133875 |
m3 |
|
Energy consumption per bottle |
0.00081218 |
kWh/bottle*month |
|
*Values taken from publication: ‘Energy Consumption in a Distributional Warehouse: A Practical Case Study for Different Warehouse Technologies’, Lewczuk et al 2021 |
||
For direct-to-consumer deliveries: 0 allocations were assumed.
Table 3.10. Proportion of sales by distribution type.
|
Distribution type |
Value |
Unit |
|
Direct to consumer |
28.0 |
% |
|
Large distributor (warehouse) |
24.6 |
% |
|
Off-trade brick and mortar |
41.0 |
% |
|
On-trade establishments |
6.4 |
% |
C1-C4: End of Life and Disposal
C1. No assumptions were made for deconstruction and demolition due to the nature of the product.
C2 Transport to waste processing:
Transport to waste processing consists of the glass bottles of the Lightly Spiced Rum from the location the buyers choose to dispose of the glass to the closest glass recycling plant. This estimate is taking into consideration that the buyer decides to recycle the glass bottle, and that glass is the dominant component of the packaging material by weight.
The average distance travelled for waste processing is 5.3 miles. This has been calculated by taking into consideration the locations of the buyers of the products, and the distance from these locations to the closest glass recycling plant.
The most used vehicle to transport glass and other recyclable products in the UK is the 2013 Dennis Eagle Elite 2, It has a six-cylinder 8.9L Cummins diesel engine. Therefore, by taking into consideration the consumption of the vehicle (30L / 61miles), it is estimated that the average journey of a glass bottle from the recycling bin to the glass recycling plant consumes 2.6 L of diesel. This translates to 6.86 kg of CO2e emissions emitted per 5.3-mile journey.
As the average weight of the vehicle that emits 6.86 kg CO2e per 5.3 miles is 16,500 kg and the weight of the consumed bottle of Lightly Spiced Rum is 0.52 kg, the weight of the bottle accounts for 0.0032% of the total emissions. This translates to a total of 0.000216 kg CO2e emissions per bottle per 5.3 miles.
This calculation assumes that the customer chooses to recycle the glass bottle, and that the recycling lorry transports the glass to the nearest glass recycling plant from the location of the recycling bin.
C3 Waste processing for reuse, recovery and/or recycling:
Energy consumed in recycling glass.
No values for recycling glass could be found in the OpenLCA databases used, so literature values were used to calculate impact of recycling glass. The energy consumed in the process of recycling one glass bottle is equal to the energy consumption of a 110-watt bulb for 4 hours. A 110-watt light bulb uses 0.1 kilowatts each hour in the UK. Therefore, the energy consumed in recycling one bottle is equal to 0.4 kilowatts. Most energy used in British glass production is in the form of natural gas, and so the LCIA values for natural gas were used to compute the impact of the equivalent of 0.4 kWh produced via natural gas for this category. It was assumed that 100% of the glass was recycled.
This can be explained as using crushed glass from bottles (cullet) instead of virgin material saves between 20-30% of energy. The key point to this energy saving is that, when manufacturing is carried out using recycled glass or cullet, the material’s melting point is lower and subsequently, so is the energy required.
C4. Disposal
It was assumed that 100% of the remaining components of the bottle packaging were incinerated in an energy recovery plant. This included the cork, the hemp paper labels, and the cellulose outer ring for a total of 0.01931 kg of biodegradable material for waste incineration.
D Reuse, recovery and/or recycling potential expressed as net impacts and benefits:
Savings in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG): By using glass cullet, the carbon emissions are reduced from between 20 - 50%. For every recycled ton of glass, the emission of 200 kg of CO2e (166-315 kg) is avoided. The recycling credit resulting from sending glass bottles to a recycling plant as opposed to a landfill was calculated using the above emissions savings (0.104 kg CO2e /bottle) as well as the assumption that all emissions avoided were due to natural gas consumption.
On average, energy recovery from incineration of waste of one tonne of mixed waste produces 557 kWh in the UK in 2021. This translates into 0.557 kWh/kg waste produced, and 0.010756 kWh for the incineration of the remaining components of the packaging.
Air pollution is reduced by 20% for every 10% of recycled glass, the emission of particles into the atmosphere is reduced by 8%, 10% in the case of Sulphur oxides and 4% for nitrogen oxide. Therefore, it is very important, not just for carbon emissions, to recycle all glass if possible. It is also interesting to note that for every 1 kg of glass bottles made from recycled material, 1.2 kg of starting materials for virgin glass production is saved.
4. Life Cycle Assessment Results
The goal of this study was to determine the environmental impact of a bottle of Lightly Spiced Rum in order to assist Two Drifters Distillery’s full company carbon impact. Along the way other impact categories were calculated, and these are displayed alongside the global warming potential (CO2e) results. Results have been displayed to include the recycling credits, in order to fully express the life cycle impact that one bottle of Lightly Spiced Rum has.
In the life cycle assessment of the Lightly Spiced Rum the areas which are considered are stages A1-D.
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A1: |
The extraction of raw materials, specifically, molasses from sugarcane, which is used for the rum distilling process. |
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A2: |
Transportation of raw materials to the distillery in Exeter. Molasses are sources from Central America. |
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A3: |
The distilling process of the rum and packaging. |
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A4: |
Transportation of the packaged product to end user type. |
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A5: |
Installation of the rum at the end user facility. |
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B1: |
Use of the product by the end user. |
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B2: |
Maintenance of bottle at end user. |
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B3: |
Repair of bottle at end user. |
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B4: |
Replacement of bottle. |
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B5: |
Refurbishment of bottle. |
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B6: |
The energy associated with consuming the rum at the end user. |
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B7: |
The water associated with consuming the rum at the end user. |
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C1: |
Deconstruction and removal of the bottle from the end user’s location. |
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C2: |
Transportation of the bottle and cork to a waste processing facility. |
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C3: |
The energy required to recycle glass. |
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C4: |
The emissions related to incineration of the label, cellulose seal and cork. |
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D: |
The recycling potential credit for recycling glass and for producing electricity waste incineration. |
To continue reading the full report, and to download this EPD (if you wish), please click the link below.
Two Drifters EPD - Lightly Spiced Rum