The aim of this study was to determine the environmental footprint (EFP) of clamshell packaging containers made of poly(lactic acid), -PLA- a bio-based polymer, and poly (ethylene terephthalate) -PET- a petroleum-based polymer using attributional and consequential life cycle assessment (ALCA and CLCA). The main objective was to determine the EFP of these clamshell packaging containers using the newly developed Ecoinvent V3 database by the Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventory, and provided by SimaPro v8.2 applying ALCA and CLCA methods. A functional unit of the study was selected as 1000 clamshell containers of 1 lb capacity. The system boundary was from cradle-to-grave, and the temporal coverage was from 2008 to 2014. IMPACT 2002+ v2.11 midpoint indicator was used as the impact assessment methodology. The EFP for 10 midpoint impact categories for PET calculated according to ALCA were higher than CLCA. For PLA, 11 of 15 midpoint impact categories calculated according to ALCA were higher than CLCA. After normalization, only four midpoint impact categories: carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, global warming and non-renewable energy, were significantly different between ALCA and CLCA. The major differences in the EFP between ALCA and CLCA were the environmental benefit and the resin production stages.
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