How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an aluminium foil container?
Multiply the foil per container, including skeleton scrap, by your foil supplier's per-kg aluminium figure. Add press electricity, lubricant, lids and packing, then divide by containers passed. Aluminium is almost all of the total, so the foil figure matters most.
Materials
- Aluminium foil by weight per container; ask the foil roller whether it is primary or recycled metal.
- Board or foil lids.
- Skeleton scrap sold back, which is not counted in the container.
Process
- Mechanical or pneumatic presses with dies.
- Compressor and stacking.
- Shrink wrap and cartons.
Per piece
Report per container with its weight. Foil from recycled metal has a much lower figure than primary foil.
Worked example: foil container unit per piece (one month)
- Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
- Containers passed: 1,000,000
- Plant total: 5,680 / 1,000,000 = 0.00568 kg CO2 per container
- Add aluminium foil for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
- Product carbon footprint calculator
- Are aluminium foil and containers covered by CBAM
- Aluminium cookware footprint per kg
- Aluminium industry
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-20.