Life Cycle Assessments

Life cycle assessments are performed to assess the environmental impact a product will have. It includes the whole life-cycle of a product, including the material it is made from and how it will eventually be disposed of. LCAs are useful to make more environmentally-informed decisions about products but they can be subjective.

Life Cycle Assessments

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are carried out on products to determine their impact on the environment. LCAs consider the whole life cycle of the product including:

• The material used

• The manufacturing and packaging process

• The use of the product

• The disposal of the product at the end of its useful life

For each of these life-cycle stages, the LCA will assess how much energy is used and whether any pollutants are formed. For example:

The material used

• Plastics are often made from crude oil – this is a non-renewable resource and supplied are decreasing. Extracting crude oil from the group requires a lot of energy and generates pollution.

• Metals are usually mined and then extracted from their ores. Mining destroys habitats and creates pollution. Extracting metals from their ores requires a lot of energy. Metals are also a finite resource and are running out.

Manufacturing and packaging

• Manufacturing processes can create pollution such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen chloride.

• Many manufacturing processes use water – this needs to be treated before it can be put back into the environment

• The product may be packaged in non-recyclable materials

Product use

• The product itself may damage the environment. For example:

  • Fertilisers can escape into ponds and rivers, causing eutrophication

  • Paints and solvents can give off toxic fumes

  • Cars and other vehicles give off carbon dioxide and particulates

Disposal

• The product may be non-recyclable, in which case it will be dumped in landfill. This uses up land and can cause pollution.

• Some products may be burnt, which causes air pollution

Comparative LCAs are used to compare the environmental impact on two alternative products. For example, comparative LCAs can be used to determine the environmental damage caused by plastic cups versus paper cups.

Some aspects of an LCA are straight-forward to quantify, such as the volume of water used in a manufacturing process. Other aspects, such as the amount of carbon dioxide released by a vehicle during its use is not so easy to quantify, because we don’t know how much each customer will drive the car. This means that much of a LCA depends on estimates and judgements so can be subjective. The outcome of an LCA may depend on who is carrying it out. Let’s say it is being conducted by the company who want to manufacture the product – in this instance, the environmental damage of the product may be underestimated due to bias and a lack of objectivity.

Reducing the use of resources

We can lessen the environmental impact of certain resources by:

1. Reducing their use, particularly in cases where the product is made of finite resources. Metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics and plastics are all produced from limited raw materials which require lots of energy and habitat destruction to extract. Choosing to make products out of other, renewable materials will minimise damage to the environment.

2. Reusing them where possible – for example, glass bottles can be crushed and melted to make different glass products.

3. Recycling the product once it can no longer be used – metals can be recycled by melting and recasting or reforming into different products.

By doing these three things, we can minimise the extraction of finite resources, use less energy and create less waste and pollution.

Next Page: Using Materials