The EU Container Glass Federation (FEVE) has recently launched the first co-organised permanent MEP policy dialogue on glass packaging within the European Parliament, hosted by MEPs Dr Filip Kaczmarek and Dr Vittorio Prodi. This platform has been created to discuss openly and debate a range of EU policy issues affecting the glass industry with Europe's decision makers, NGOs and stakeholders. Among the hot issues, the inaugural dialogue centred on the popular and much debated LCAs and plugging the gaps that lie embedded within this commonly used tool to assess a product's environmental impact. One message came across loud and clear, policy makers need to work towards identifying and plugging the gaps for improved and more accurate results when creating LCAs. Until then, the only option available is to "mind the gaps." The live streamed event from the EP had Prof Finkbeiner, Chair of Sustainable Engineering and Vice-Director of the Dept of Environmental Technology at the Technical University Berlin, open the dialogue, presenting his findings on the gaps in LCA and advising that it is important to look into all aspects of environmental impacts when creating an assessment of a product. Although stakeholders and policy makers frequently rely on LCAs, it is important to be aware of the methodological limitations and certain environmental impacts that can render assessment inaccuracies. For example, we have yet to see all environmental and health impacts such as marine litter, biodiversity, water consumption and toxicology taken into account. With water being the new carbon, it is a real problem that LCAs currently do not address water scarcity issues. A litre of water in Brussels is not the same as a litre in Sudan. This is an example of a gap that needs to be addressed and resolved through improved data availability and quality of data. While LCAs are currently high on the agenda, workshop participants admitted that they were now sometimes misused. It is believed that shedding light on the limitations brings us a step closer to narrowing the gaps created by factors not yet accounted for, or those that are repeatedly ignored. Dr Finkbeiner stressed that we should not restrict our assessments to a simple model because it is more convenient; we must improve it to achieve more truthful results and ensure the sustainable use of LCA.
