How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a laminated tube?
Weigh the laminate web, shoulder and cap per tube and multiply by supplier figures. Add printing, tube forming, shoulder moulding and capping energy, then divide the plant's energy by tubes made.
Material
- Aluminium barrier laminate or all-plastic laminate.
- HDPE shoulder.
- PP cap and printing ink.
Process
- Printing the laminate web.
- Side seaming the tube.
- Shoulder moulding, capping and packing.
Per tube
Report per tube by diameter, length and laminate type. An aluminium barrier laminate often carries more footprint than an all-plastic one.
Worked example: plant energy per tube (one month)
- Electricity: 50,000 kWh x 0.710 = 35,500 kg CO2
- Tubes made: 3,000,000
- Plant total: 35,500 / 3,000,000 = 0.0118 kg CO2 per tube
- Add laminate, shoulder and cap 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
- Toothpaste footprint
- Multilayer flexible pouch footprint
- Injection moulding footprint
- Chemical 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 2026-10-21.