C14.5 Life cycle assessments
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What is the purpose of the Life Cycle Assessment?
➢ Used to assess the impact on the environment
How can impacts on the environments be caused by?
➢ Getting and processing the raw materials ➢ Making the product ➢ Maintaining the product ➢ Disposing of a product at the end of its useful life
How is an LCA carried out?
➢ Listing all the energy and material inputs and all the outputs into the environment ➢ Evaluating the potential environmental impacts from these inputs and outputs ➢ Interpreting the results to help make decisions about using one material
What does an LCA provide?
➢ Starts with the process of gathering raw materials needed to make the products ➢ Ends of when the materials are returned to the environment ➢ Provides an estimate of the total environmental impact resulting from all stages in the products life cycle
What does the outputs involve?
➢ Atmospheric emissions ➢ Waterborne wastes ➢ Solid wastes ➢ Energy dissipation to the surroundings
How can the stages in an LCA be summed as?
➢ Raw material extraction ➢ Manufacture ➢ Use/Reuse/Maintenance ➢ Recycle/Waste management
What will LCAs highlight?
➢ Environmental and health impacts when comparing products and processes ➢ Do not take into account differences in the cost or performance
What are the disadvantages of using LCAs?
➢ Assigning numerical values to the relative effects of pollutants involves subjective judgments, so LCAs using this approach must make this uncertainty clear