Environmental Trade-Offs and SDG Implications of Reusable Beverage Consumption Systems From a Life Cycle Perspective

초록

Global annual consumption of single-use beverage cups exceeds 500 billion, with many of them bypassing circular-economy pathways, highlighting the need to evaluate practical reusable alternatives. This study evaluates the environmental impacts of various beverage consumption scenarios, including refill-on-the-go (RFG) tumblers washed either manually or using a novel automatic turnkey tumbler washer, and return-on-the-go (RTG) reusable systems, as well as conventional single-use cup systems. Additionally, the environmental impacts are linked with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to benchmark the broader performance of these systems. Based on a functional unit of one beverage and a cradle-to-grave system boundary, RTG reusable cups (ecups) demonstrate the lowest annual impact (0.09 Pt), equivalent to an average annual impact of 0.09 persons, followed by RFG tumblers with automatic washers (0.13 Pt) and manual washing (0.156 Pt). Single-use PP, PET, and paper cups show impacts of 1.39, 0.97, 0.82 Pt, respectively. Despite having the lowest overall impact, RTG ecups exhibit slightly higher impacts for ecosystem- and resource-related SDGs than the tumbler washer route. Both reuse systems demonstrate strong potential to reduce institutional environmental footprints and support SDG progress.

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