Hello. I really need some advice.
We have HDF and MDF boards we use in manufacturing. From the leftovers we cut strips to use as seperators while stacking products on transportation pallets. How do I account for these? It’s not production waste in A3 because it will become packaging material and it’s end of life is in A5.
Hello PirjoK, thank you for joining the community and for raising this issue.
When HDF and MDF board leftovers are cut into strips and used as separators for packaging during transportation, these materials should be treated as packaging material rather than production waste.
The embodied carbon from the production and transport of products that will be wasted, and any impacts associated with waste treatment, should be included in A5.3 if the material is not installed but used as packaging and leaves the system at this stage.
For biobased packaging materials, the biogenic carbon content should be documented in module A5 as technical scenario information, since the packaging leaves the product system at this point.
In One Click LCA, balancing in installation (A5) is specifically available for packaging materials input in A3, which usually leaves the system in A5. This applies to input packaging only, such as your separators.
Therefore, account for these strips as packaging material, with their end-of-life impacts (including biogenic carbon, if applicable) reported in A5.
I hope this helps!