# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a plastic crate?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/plastic-crate-carbon-footprint-per-crate

Multiply the crate's weight by your polymer supplier's per-kg figure for PP or HDPE. Add the moulding shop's electricity per kg, divided across crates passed, plus any printing and pallet wrap. Polymer is usually most of the total.

## Materials

- PP copolymer or HDPE by crate weight.
- Regrind share, which lowers the virgin polymer needed.
- Masterbatch and in-mould labels.

## Process

- Injection moulding machines, the largest electricity user.
- Chillers and mould temperature controllers.
- Compressor, grinder and stacking.

## Per crate

Give the crate weight with the figure. A returnable crate's footprint per trip is the crate figure divided by the trips it makes.

## Worked example: moulding shop per crate (one month)

- Electricity: 120,000 kWh x 0.710 = 85,200 kg CO2
- Crates passed: 200,000
- Plant total: 85,200 / 200,000 = 0.426 kg CO2 per crate
- Add the polymer per crate 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)
- [Injection moulding footprint per kg](https://senseible.earth/answers/injection-moulding-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Wooden vs plastic pallet footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/wooden-vs-plastic-pallet-carbon-footprint)

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.