# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of an aluminium foil container?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-foil-container-carbon-footprint-per-piece

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](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint)
- [Are aluminium foil and containers covered by CBAM](https://senseible.earth/answers/are-aluminium-foil-and-containers-covered-by-cbam)
- [Aluminium cookware footprint per kg](https://senseible.earth/answers/aluminium-cookware-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Aluminium industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/aluminium)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.