In this study, we conduct a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of alternative options for grocery carrier bags in South Africa. The study compared standard single-use plastic carrier bags with several alternatives, including reusable bags and bags made from different materials, regarding their environmental and socio-economic performance across the product life cycle.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an approach to assessing the environmental impacts across the complete life cycle of a product, typically from “cradle-to-grave.” The application of environmental LCA is guided by ISO standards 14040 and 14044 of 2006.

In addition to environmental indicators, the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) also attempts to incorporate social and economic indicators into the assessment.

Sixteen different types of carrier bags were assessed according to standard environmental indicators, the persistence of material in the environment (to account for the impacts of plastic pollution) and several socio-economic indicators (costs and employment). An attempt was also made to integrate the results into a single score, allowing the bags to be ranked from an overall sustainability perspective.