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1.
David Amienyo Haruna Gujba Heinz Stichnothe Adisa Azapagic 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2013,18(1):77-92
Purpose
The UK carbonated drinks sector was worth £8 billion in 2010 and is growing at an annual rate of 4.9 %. In an attempt to provide a better understanding of the environmental impacts of this sector, this paper presents, for the first time, the full life cycle impacts of carbonated soft drinks manufactured and consumed in the UK. Two functional units are considered: 1 l of packaged drink and total annual production of carbonated drinks in the UK. The latter has been used to estimate the impacts at the sectoral level. The system boundary is from ‘cradle to grave’. Different packaging used for carbonated drinks is considered: glass bottles (0.75 l), aluminium cans (0.33 l) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles (0.5 and 2 l).Materials and methods
The study has been carried out following the ISO 14040/44 life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Data have been sourced from a drink manufacturer as well as the CCaLC, Ecoinvent and Gabi databases. The LCA software tools CCaLC v2.0 and GaBi 4.3 have been used for LCA modelling. The environmental impacts have been estimated according to the CML 2001 method.Results and discussion
Packaging is the main hotspot for most environmental impacts, contributing between 59 and 77 %. The ingredients account between 7 and 14 % mainly due to sugar; the manufacturing stage contributes 5–10 %, largely due to the energy for filling and packaging. Refrigeration of the drink at retailer increases global warming potential by up to 33 %. Transport contributes up to 7 % to the total impacts.Conclusions
The drink packaged in 2 l PET bottles is the most sustainable option for most impacts, including the carbon footprint, while the drink in glass bottles is the worst option. However, reusing glass bottles three times would make the carbon footprint of the drink in glass bottles comparable to that in aluminium cans and 0.5 l PET bottles. If recycling of PET bottles is increased to 60 %, the glass bottle would need to be reused 20 times to make their carbon footprints comparable. The estimates at the sectoral level indicate that the carbonated drinks in the UK are responsible for over 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 eq. emissions per year. This represented 13 % of the GHG emissions from the whole food and drink sector or 0.26 % of the UK total emissions in 2010. 相似文献2.
Goal, Scope and Background Gipuzkoa is a department of the Vasque Country (Spain) with a population of about 700,000 people. By the year 2000 approximately
85% of municipal solid waste in this area was managed by landfilling, and only 15% was recycled. Due to environmental law
restrictions and landfill capacity being on its limit, a planning process was initiated by the authorities. LCA was used,
from an environmental point of view, to assess 7 possible scenarios arising from the draft Plan for the 2016 time horizon.
Main Features In each scenario, 9 waste flows are analysed: rest waste, paper and cardboard, glass containers, light packaging, organic-green
waste, as well as industrial/commercial wood, metals and plastics, and wastewater sludge. Waste treatments range from recycling
to energy recovery and landfilling.
Results Recycling of the waste flows separated at the source (paper and cardboard, glass, light packaging, organic-green waste, wood
packaging, metals and plastics) results in net environmental benefits caused by the substitution of primary materials, except
in water consumption. These benefits are common to the 7 different scenarios analysed. However, some inefficiencies are detected,
mainly the energy consumption in collection and transport of low density materials, and water consumption in plastic recycling.
The remaining flows, mixed waste and wastewater sludge, are the ones causing the major environmental impacts, by means of
incineration, landfilling of partially stabilised organic material, as well as thermal drying of sludge. With the characterisation
results, none of the seven scenarios can be clearly identified as the most preferable, although, due to the high recycling
rates expected by the Plan, net environmental benefits are achieved in 9 out of 10 impact categories in all scenarios when
integrated waste management is assessed (the sum of the 9 flows of waste). Finally, there are no relevant differences between
scenarios concerning the number of treatment plants considered. Nevertheless, only the effects on transportation impacts were
assessed in the LCA, since the plant construction stage was excluded from the system boundaries.
Conclusions The results of the study show the environmental importance of material recycling in waste management, although the recycling
schemes assessed can be improved in some aspects. It is also important to highlight the environmental impact of incineration
and landfilling of waste, as well as thermal drying of sludge using fossil fuels. One of the main findings of applying LCA
to integrated waste management in Gipuzkoa is the fact that the benefits of high recycling rates can compensate for the impacts
of mixed waste and wastewater sludge.
Recommendations and Outlook Although none of the scenarios can be clearly identified as the one having the best environmental performance, the authorities
in Gipuzkoa now have objective information about the future scenarios, and a multidisciplinary panel could be formed in order
to weight the impacts if necessary. In our opinion, LCA was successfully applied in Gipuzkoa as an environmental tool for
decision making. 相似文献
3.
Gurbakhash S. Bhander Thomas H. Christensen Michael Z. Hauschild 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2010,15(4):403-416
Background, aim, and scope
The management of municipal solid waste and the associated environmental impacts are subject of growing attention in industrialized countries. European Union has recently strongly emphasized the role of LCA in its waste and resource strategies. The development of sustainable solid waste management systems applying a life cycle perspective requires readily understandable tools for modeling the life cycle impacts of waste management systems. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the structure, functionalities, and LCA modeling capabilities of the PC-based life cycle-oriented waste management model EASEWASTE, developed at the Technical University of Denmark specifically to meet the needs of the waste system developer with the objective to evaluate the environmental performance of the various elements of existing or proposed solid waste management systems. 相似文献4.
Lucia Rigamonti Mario Grosso Maria Caterina Sunseri 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(5):411-419
Background, aim, and scope Life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to alternative waste management strategies is becoming a commonly utilised tool for decision
makers. This LCA study analyses together material and energy recovery within integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) management
systems, i.e. the recovery of materials separated with the source-separated collection of MSW and the energy recovery from
the residual waste. The final aim is to assess the energetic and environmental performance of the entire MSW management system
and, in particular, to evaluate the influence of different assumptions about recycling on the LCA results.
Materials and methods The analysis uses the method of LCA and, thus, takes into account that any recycling activity influences the environment not
only by consuming resources and releasing emissions and waste streams but also by replacing conventional products from primary
production. Different assumptions about the selection efficiencies of the collected materials and about the quantity of virgin
material substituted by the reprocessed material were made. Moreover, the analysis considers that the energy recovered from
the residual waste displaces the same quantity of energy produced in conventional power plants and boilers fuelled with fossil
fuels.
Results The analysis shows, in the expanded model of the material and energy recovering chain, that the environmental gains are higher
than the environmental impacts. However, when we reduce the selection efficiencies by 15%, the impact indicators worsen by
a percentage included between 10% and 26%. This phenomenon is even more evident when we consider a substitution ratio of 1:<1
for paper and plastic: The worsening is around 15–20% for all the impact indicators except for the global warming for which
the worsening is up to 45%.
Discussion Hypotheses about the selection efficiencies of the source-separated collected materials and about the substitution ratio have
a great influence on the LCA results. Consequently, policy makers have to be aware of the fact that the impacts of an integrated
MSW management system are highly dependent on the assumptions made in the modelling of the material recovery, as well as in
the modelling of the energy recovery.
Conclusions LCA allows to evaluate the impacts of integrated systems and how these impacts change when the assumptions made during the
modelling of the different single parts of the system are modified. Due to the significant impacts that hypotheses about material
recovery have in the results, they should be expressed in a very transparent way in the report of LCA studies, together with
the assumptions made about energy recovery.
Recommendations and perspectives The results suggest that the hypotheses about the value of the substitution ratio are very important, and the case of wood
should therefore be better analysed and a substitution ratio of 1:<1 should be used, as for paper and plastic. It seems that
the assumptions made about which material is replaced by the recycled one are very important too, and in this sense, more
research is needed about what the recycled plastic may effectively substitute, in particular the polyolefin mix. 相似文献
5.
Emanuele Brambilla Pisoni Roberto Raccanelli Giovanni Dotelli Donatella Botta Paco Melià 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(3):248-256
Background, aim, and scope Many recent studies on waste management have described in detail the potential impacts of recycling and final treatment of
municipal waste. In public debates, the attention has also been focused on the choice of final disposal technologies (e.g.
landfilling vs. incineration). However, a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of waste collection and transport was still
lacking. In the present study, we use LCA to evaluate the potential impact of the provincial waste management plan of Varese
(northern Italy). Particular attention is devoted to the estimation of environmental impacts generated during waste transport.
Materials and methods A detailed Life Cycle Inventory was built for the transportation phase, based on primary data collected by interviewing the
agencies involved in waste collection. To model the recycling and final disposal phase we relied on the BUWAL 250 database.
Impacts were evaluated with the Eco-Indicator 99 method in its egalitarian formulation.
Results The results of our analysis reveal that the major potential impacts of the plan are associated with waste collection and transport.
These impacts are partially compensated by reduced resource consumption through recycling and energy recovery through incineration.
Discussion The outputs of the LCIA were compared with those obtained by using other ecoindicators (Eco-Indicator 99 hierarchist and individualist,
CML2, EPS2000). Although not comparable on a quantitative basis, they are qualitatively consistent.
Conclusions Neglecting the effects of collection and transport might result in a severe underestimation of the environmental impacts of
a waste management system, especially as refers to depletion of fossil fuels, emission of respiratory inorganics and climate
change. To reduce the environmental impact of waste management systems, an accurate optimisation of waste transport is required.
Recommendations and perspectives Effective waste management planning requires the explicit inclusion of waste collection and transport when comparing alternative
management policies. 相似文献
6.
Simone Nessi Lucia Rigamonti Mario Grosso 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2013,18(7):1358-1373
Purpose
Waste prevention has been assigned increasing attention worldwide during recent years, and it is expected to become one of the core elements of waste management planning in the near future. In this framework, this paper presents and discusses two possible LCA approaches for the evaluation of the environmental and energetic performance of municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems which include the effects of waste prevention activities.Methods
The two approaches are conceived for the comparison of waste management scenarios including waste prevention activities with baseline scenarios without waste prevention. For both of them, the functional unit is defined and the system boundaries are described with reference to different typologies of waste prevention activities identified in an extensive review. The procedure for the calculation of the LCA impacts of scenarios is also reported and an example illustrating the processes to be included in system boundaries for a specific waste prevention activity is provided.Results and discussion
The presented approaches lead to the same result in terms of difference between the LCA impacts of a waste prevention scenario and of a baseline one. However, because of the partially different upstream system boundaries, different values of the impacts of single scenarios are obtained and the application of the two approaches is more suitable in different situations and in analyses with different purposes. The methodological aspects that can complicate the applicability of the two approaches are discussed lastly.Conclusions
The environmental and energetic performance of MSW management scenarios including waste prevention activities can be evaluated with the two LCA approaches presented in this paper. They can be used for many purposes such as, among the most general, evaluating the upstream and downstream environmental consequences of implementing particular waste prevention activities in a given waste management system, complementing waste reduction indicators with LCA-based indicators and supporting with quantitative evidence the strategic and policy relevance of waste prevention. 相似文献7.
Brandon Kuczenski Roland Geyer 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2013,18(2):456-471
Purpose
Disposable beverage bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) stand in sharp contrast to many other disposable plastic packaging systems in the US for their high level of post-consumer recovery for recycling. This is due in part to container deposit programs in several US states, such as the California Redemption Value (CRV) program. We investigate the impacts of PET bottle recycling in the CRV program to evaluate its effectiveness at reducing environmental burdens.Methods
We develop a life cycle model using standard process LCA techniques. We use the US LCI database to describe the energy production infrastructure and the production of primary materials. We describe the inventory and logistical requirements for materials recovery on the basis of state-maintained statistics and interviews with operators and industry representatives. We report inventory indicators describing energy, freight, and waste disposal requirements. We report several impact indicators based on CML and TRACI-2.0 techniques. We apply system expansion to compare post-consumer activities to produce secondary polymer against equivalent primary production.Results and discussion
While bottle collection is distributed across the state, processing is more centralized and occurs primarily near urban centers. The average distance traveled by a bottle from discard to recovery is 145–175 km. Recycling requires 0.45–0.66 MJ of primary energy/L of beverage, versus 3.96 MJ during the pre-consumer phase. Post-consumer environmental impacts are significantly lower than pre-consumer impacts, with the exception of eutrophication. The results are robust to model sensitivity, with allocation of fuel for bottle collection being the most significant parameter. Curbside collection is slightly more energy efficient than consumer drop-off, and is subject to smaller parametric uncertainty. Recycling has the potential for net environmental benefits in five of seven impact categories, the exceptions being smog (marginal benefits) and eutrophication (increased impacts).Conclusions
California’s decentralized program for collecting and processing PET bottles has produced a system which generates a large stream of post-consumer material with minimal environmental impact. The selection of a reclamation locale is the most significant factor influencing post-consumer impacts. If secondary PET displaces primary material, several environmental burdens can be reduced.Recommendations and perspectives
Our results suggest that deposit programs on disposable packaging are an effective policy mechanism to increase material recovery and reduce environmental burdens. Deposit programs for other packaging systems should be considered. 相似文献8.
David Rochat Claudia R. Binder Jaime Diaz Olivier Jolliet 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2013,17(5):642-655
Three assessment methods, material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle analysis (LCA), and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT) are systematically combined for supporting the choice of best end‐of‐life scenarios for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste in a municipality of a developing country. MFA analyzes the material and energy balance of a firm, a region, or a nation, identifying the most relevant processes; LCA evaluates multiple environmental impacts of a product or a service from cradle to grave; and MAUT allows for inclusion of other aspects along with the ecological ones in the assessment. We first systematically coupled MFA and LCA by defining “the service offered by the total PET used during one year in the region” as the functional unit. Inventory and impacts were calculated by multiplying MFA flows with LCA impacts per kilogram. We used MAUT to include social and economic aspects in the assessment. To integrate the subjective point of view of stakeholders in the MAUT, we normalized the environmental, social, and economic variables with respect to the magnitude of overall impacts or benefits in the country. The results show large benefits for recycling scenarios from all points of view and also provide information about waste treatment optimization. The combination of the three assessment methods offers a powerful integrative assessment of impacts and benefits. Further research should focus on data collection methods to easily determine relevant material flows. LCA impact factors specific to Colombia should be developed, as well as more reliable social indicators. 相似文献
9.
In this study, we develop a framework for the multicriteria design of plastic recycling based on quality information and environmental impacts for the purpose of supporting collaborative decision making among consumers, municipalities, and recyclers. The subject of this article is the mechanical recycling of postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. We present a “quality conversion matrix,” which links the quality of recycled PET resin to the quality of waste PET bottles and operational conditions, described in terms of the functions of modules constituting the entire recycling process. We estimate the quality of recycled PET resin and simulate the applicability to the intended products as the primary criterion by confirming whether the estimated quality of recycled resin satisfies the quality demands of PET resin users. The amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fossil resource consumption are also estimated as the secondary criteria. An approach to collaborative decision making utilizing mixed‐integer linear programming (MILP) and Monte Carlo simulation is proposed on the premise of different objectives of various stakeholders, where all the feasible optimal solutions for achieving the quality demands are obtained. The quality requirements of waste bottles, along with the CO2 emissions and fossil resource consumption estimated for each solution, contribute to the collaborative multicriteria design of plastic recycling. 相似文献
10.
LCA of an Italian lager beer 总被引:1,自引:1,他引:0
Mauro Cordella Alessandro Tugnoli Gigliola Spadoni Francesco Santarelli Tullio Zangrando 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2008,13(2):133-139
Background, Aim and Scope The increasing concern about environment protection and a broader awareness of the sustainable development issues cause more
and more attention to be given to the environmental impacts of products through the different phases of their life cycle.
Foods are definitely among the products whose overall environmental performance can be effectively investigated resorting
to LCA. A LCA case study was performed in order to detect and quantify the environmental impacts deriving from the life cycle
of a lager beer produced by an Italian small brewery, investigating and comparing two packaging options: beer in 20 L returnable
stainless steel kegs and beer in 33 cL one way glass bottles.
Materials and Methods The investigated system included: production and acquisition of materials and energy, brewing process, packaging, transports,
beer consumption and waste disposal. Data for the study were mostly collected from the Theresianer Brewery and completed on
the basis of literature information. Data uncertainty was treated with a Monte Carlo analysis. Life Cycle Inventories were
constructed for 1 L of beer in bottle and 1 L of beer in keg using the LCA software SimaPro and then assessed at the endpoint
level according to the Eco-Indicator’99 method.
Results Inorganic emissions, land use and fossil fuel consumptions resulted to be the most critical environmental issues of both beer
life cycles. Beer in keg turned out to cause a lower environmental load along its life cycle than bottled beer; this was mainly
due to the higher emissions and the higher energy consumptions allocated to the glass bottles. Moreover, beer consumption
phase, glass bottle production and barley cultivation were found to be the critical stages of the beer life cycle.
Discussion The brewing process did not result as a critical stage and therefore the company dimension may not be a crucial element for
the overall impact quantification. On the contrary, beer consumption may have a significant impact mainly due to the consumer
displacement.
Conclusions The analysis pointed out the relevance of the beer consumption phase and of the packaging choice within the beer life cycle
and allowed to detect the other critical stages of the life cycle. It is worth to notice that producers and consumers can
be active and responsible actors in pursuing the collective goal of the environmental sustainability.
Recommendations and Perspectives In order to improve the environmental performance of the beer life cycle, producers should set up marketing strategies in
favour of reusable packaging and consumers should prefer draught beer and reduce car use. As beer consumption phase, bottle
production and recycling and barley cultivation were found to be very significant stages of the life cycle of the beer, deepening
the analysis of these aspects in similar studies is suggested.
ESS-Submission Editor: Dr. Rolf Frischknecht (frischknecht@ecoinvent.org) 相似文献
11.
结合城市生活垃圾管理系统特征,系统归纳基于生命周期评价(Life cycle assessment,LCA)方法的城市生活垃圾管理模型的发展现状,并对LCA方法在城市生活垃圾管理中的实践以及在我国开展城市生活垃圾管理LCA研究的应用前景进行评述。分析表明,LCA是城市生活垃圾管理领域的重要工具之一,基于LCA方法的城市生活垃圾管理模型在全生命周期环境影响评价与识别、处置工艺选择与改进、可持续生活垃圾管理决策支持等方面具有十分重要的应用价值。中国在本地化生活垃圾管理系统LCA模型开发、清单数据库和评价指标体系构建以及与其他研究方法集成等方面面临挑战。 相似文献
12.
Background In Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), decision makers are often faced with tradeoffs between current and future impacts. One typical
example is waste incineration, where immediate emissions to the air from the incineration process have to be weighted against
future emissions of slag landfills. Long-term impacts are either completely taken into account or they are entirely disregarded
in case of a temporal cut-off. Temporal cutoffs are a special case of discounting.
Objective In this paper, discounting is defined as valuing damages differently at different points of time using a positive or negative
discount rate. Apart from temporal cut-offs, discounting has rarely been applied in LCA so far. It is the goal of this paper
to discuss the concept of discounting and its applicability in the context of LCA.
Methods For this purpose, we first review the arguments for discounting and its principles in economic sciences. Discounting in economics
can be motivated by pure time preference, productivity of capital, diminishing marginal utility of consumption, and uncertainties.
The nominal discount rate additionally includes changes in the price level. These arguments and their justification are discussed
in the context of environmental impacts harming future generations.
Results and Discussion It is concluded that discounting across generations because of pure time preference contradicts fundamental ethical values
and should therefore not be applied in LCA. However, it has to be acknowledged that in practice decision makers often use
positive discount rates because of pure time preference — either because they might profit from imposing environmental damage
on others instead of themselves or because people in the far future are not of immediate concern to them. Discounting because
of the productivity of capital assumes a relationship between monetary values and environmental impact. If such a relationship
is accepted, discounting could be applied. However, future generations should be compensated for the environmental damage.
It is likely that they would demand a higher compensation if the real per capita income increases. As both the compensation
and the discount rate are related to economic growth, the overall discount rate might be close to zero. It is shown that the
overall discount rate might even be negative considering that the required compensation could increase (even to infinite)
if natural assets remain scarce, whereas the utility of consumption diminishes with increasing income. Uncertainties could
justify both positive and negative discount rates. Since the relationship between uncertainties and the magnitude of damage
is generally not exponential, we recommend to model changes in the magnitude of damage in scenario analysis instead of considering
it in discounting (which requires an exponential function of time in the case of a constant discount rate). We investigated
the influence of discounting in a case study of heavy metal emissions from slag landfills. It could be shown that even small
discount rates of less than 1 % lead to a significant reduction of the impact score, whereas negative discount rates inflate
the results.
Conclusions and Recommendations Discounting is only applicable when temporally differentiated data is available. In some cases, such a temporal differentiation
is necessary to take sound decisions, especially when long emission periods are involved. An example is the disposal of nuclear
or heavy metal-containing waste. In these cases, the results might completely depend on the discount rate. This paper helps
to structure arguments and thus to support the decision about whether or not discounting should be applied in an LCA. 相似文献
13.
Adriana Del Borghi Michela Gallo Marco Del Borghi 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(7):597-610
Background, aim, and scope
Life-cycle thinking and life-cycle approaches are concepts that are getting increased attention worldwide and in particular in EU Policies related to sustainability. The European Commission is launching a number of activities to strengthen life-cycle thinking in policy and business. EU policies aim to decrease waste generation through new waste prevention initiatives, better use of resources and shift to more sustainable consumption patterns. The approach to waste management is based on three principles: waste prevention, recycling and reuse and improving the final disposal and monitoring. In particular, concerning the prevention and recycling of waste, the definition of a waste hierarchy should be the basis for the prioritisation of waste management options. The benefit of using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in analysing waste management systems is the provision of a comprehensive view of the processes and impacts involved. However, it is also clear that the studies will always be open for criticism as they are simplifications of reality. Moreover, in order to become the LCA, a leading tool within businesses and government to understand and manage risks or opportunities related to waste management and treatment technologies, there are methodological choices required and a number of aspects that still need to be worked out. It is therefore important to review open and grey literatures, EU guidelines, relevant environmental indicators and databases for the waste sector and data easily usable in waste policy decision-making, with an agreed approach and methodology based on life-cycle thinking. The following survey gathers and describes the existing guidelines and methodologies based on life-cycle thinking and applicable in waste policy decision-making. 相似文献14.
Trevor Zink Frank Maker Roland Geyer Rajeevan Amirtharajah Venkatesh Akella 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2014,19(5):1099-1109
Purpose
Waste management for end-of-life (EoL) smartphones is a growing problem due to their high turnover rate and concentration of toxic chemicals. The versatility of modern smartphones presents an interesting alternative waste management strategy: repurposing. This paper investigates the environmental impact of smartphone repurposing as compared to traditional refurbishing using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).Methods
A case study of repurposing was conducted by creating a smartphone “app” that replicates the functionality of an in-car parking meter. The environmental impacts of this prototype were quantified using waste management LCA methodology. Studied systems included three waste management options: traditional refurbishment, repurposing using battery power, and repurposing using a portable solar charger. The functional unit was defined as the EoL management of a used smartphone. Consequential system expansion was employed to account for secondary functions provided; avoided impacts from displaced primary products were included. Impacts were calculated in five impact categories. Break-even displacement rates were calculated and sensitivity to standby power consumption were assessed.Results and discussion
LCA results showed that refurbishing creates the highest environmental impacts of the three reuse routes in every impact category except ODP. High break-even displacement rates suggest that this finding is robust within a reasonable range of primary cell phone displacement. The repurposed smartphone in-car parking meter had lower impacts than the primary production parking meter. Impacts for battery-powered devices were dominated by use-phase charging electricity, whereas solar-power impacts were concentrated in manufacturing. Repurposed phones using battery power had lower impacts than those using solar power, however, standby power sensitivity analysis revealed that solar power is preferred if the battery charger is left plugged-in more than 20 % of the use period.Conclusions
Our analysis concludes that repurposing represents an environmentally preferable EoL option to refurbishing for used smartphones. The results suggest two generalizable findings. First, primary product displacement is a major factor affecting whether any EoL strategy is environmentally beneficial. The benefit depends not only on what is displaced, but also on how much displacement occurs; in general, repurposing allows freedom to target reuse opportunities with high “displacement potential.” Second, the notion that solar power is preferable to batteries is not always correct; here, the rank-order is sensitive to assumptions about user behavior. 相似文献15.
Minghui Xie Qi Qiao Qihong Sun Linlin Zhang 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2013,18(3):626-635
Purpose
Approximately 46,000 t/day of packaging waste was generated in China in 2010, of which, 2,500 t was composite packaging waste. Due to the lack of recycling technology and an imperfect recovery system, most of this waste is processed in sanitary landfills. An effective packaging waste management system is needed since this waste not only uses up valuable resources, but also increases environmental pollution. The purpose of this study is to estimate the environmental impact of the treatment scenarios in composite packaging waste which are commonly used in China, to determine the optimum composite packaging waste management strategy, and to design new separating and recycling technology for composite packaging, based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) results.Methods
To identify the best treatment for composite packaging waste, the LCA software SimaPro 7.1.6 was used to assist in the analysis of the environmental impacts, coupled with the impact assessment method Eco-Indicator 99. LCA for composite packaging waste management was carried out by estimating the environmental impacts of the four scenarios most often used in China: landfill, incineration, paper recycling, and separation of polyethylene and aluminum. One ton of post-consumption Tetra Pak waste was selected as the functional unit. The data on the mass, energy fluxes, and environmental emissions were obtained from literature and site investigations.Results and discussion
Landfill—scenario 1—was the worst waste management option. Paper recycling—scenario 3—was more environmentally friendly than incineration, scenario 2. Scenario 4, separating out polyethylene and aluminum, was established based on the LCA result, and inventory data were obtained from the demonstration project built by this research. In scenario 4, the demonstration project for the separation of polyethylene and aluminum was built based on the optimum conditions from single-factor and orthogonal experiments. Adding this flow process into the life cycle of composite packaging waste treatment decreased the environmental impacts significantly.Conclusions
The research results can provide useful scientific information for policymakers in China to make decisions regarding composite packaging waste. Incineration could reduce more environmental impacts in the respiratory inorganics category, and separation of polyethylene and aluminum, in the fossil fuel category. If energy saving is the primary governmental goal, the separation of polyethylene and aluminum would be the better choice, while incineration would be the better choice for emission reduction. 相似文献16.
Jong-Hwan Eun Ji-Ho Son Jeong-Min Moon Jong-Shik Chung 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2009,14(4):364-373
Background, aim, and scope As the sustainability improvement becomes an essential business task of industry, a number of companies are adopting IT-based
environmental information systems (EIS). Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool to improve environmental friendliness of a product,
can also be systemized as a part of the EIS. This paper presents a case of an environmental information system which is integrated
with online LCA tool to produce sets of hybrid life cycle inventory and examine its usefulness in the field application of
the environmental management.
Main features Samsung SDI Ltd., the producer of display panels, has launched an EIS called Sustainability Management Initiative System (SMIS).
The system comprised modules of functions such as environmental management system (EMS), green procurement (GP), customer
relation (e-VOC), eco-design, and LCA. The LCA module adopted the hybrid LCA methodology in the sense that it combines process
LCA for the site processes and input–output (IO) LCA for upstream processes to produce cradle-to-gate LCA results. LCA results
from the module are compared with results of other LCA studies made by the application of different methodologies. The advantages
and application of the LCA system are also discussed in light of the electronics industry.
Results and discussion LCA can play a vital role in sustainability management by finding environmental burden of products in their life cycle. It
is especially true in the case of the electronics industry, since the electronic products have some critical public concerns
in the use and end-of-life phase. SMIS shows a method for hybrid LCA through online data communication with EMS and GP module.
The integration of IT-based hybrid LCA in environmental information system was set to begin in January 2006. The advantage
of the comparing and regular monitoring of the LCA value is that it improves the system completeness and increases the reliability
of LCA. By comparing the hybrid LCA and process LCA in the cradle-to-gate stage, the gap between both methods of the 42-in.
standard definition plasma display panel (PDP) ranges from 1% (acidification impact category) to −282% (abiotic resource depletion
impact category), with an average gap of 68.63%. The gaps of the impact categories of acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP),
and global warming (GWP) are relatively low (less than 10%). In the result of the comparative analysis, the strength of correlation
of three impact categories (AP, EP, GWP) shows that it is reliable to use the hybrid LCA when assessing the environmental
impacts of the PDP module. Hybrid LCA has its own risk on data accuracy. However, the risk is affordable when it comes to
the comparative LCA among different models of similar product line of a company. In the results of 2 years of monitoring of
42-in. Standard definition PDP, the hybrid LCA score has been decreased by 30%. The system also efficiently shortens man-days
for LCA study per product. This fact can facilitate the eco-design of the products and can give quick response to the customer's
inquiry on the product's eco-profile. Even though there is the necessity for improvement of process data currently available,
the hybrid LCA provides insight into the assessments of the eco-efficiency of the manufacturing process and the environmental
impacts of a product.
Conclusions and recommendations As the environmental concerns of the industries increase, the need for environmental data management also increases. LCA shall
be a core part of the environmental information system by which the environmental performances of products can be controlled.
Hybrid type of LCA is effective in controlling the usual eco-profile of the products in a company. For an industry, in particular
electronics, which imports a broad band of raw material and parts, hybrid LCA is more practicable than the classic LCA. Continuous
efforts are needed to align input data and keep conformity, which reduces data uncertainty of the system. 相似文献
17.
Rajendra Kumar Foolmaun Toolseeram Ramjeeawon 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2013,18(1):155-171
Purpose
Improper disposal of used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles constitute an eyesore to the environmental landscape and is a threat to the flourishing tourism industry in Mauritius. It is therefore imperative to determine a suitable disposal method of used PET bottles which not only has the least environmental load but at the same time has minimum harmful impacts on peoples employed in waste disposal companies. In this respect, the present study investigated and compared the environmental and social impacts of four selected disposal alternatives of used PET bottles.Methods
Environmental impacts of the four disposal alternatives, namely: 100 % landfilling, 75 % incineration with energy recovery and 25 % landfilling, 40 % flake production (partial recycling) and 60 % landfilling and 75 % flake production and 25 % landfilling, were determined using ISO standardized life cycle assessment (ISO 14040:2006) and with the support of SimaPro 7.1 software. Social life cycle assessments were performed based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of products. Three stakeholder categories (worker, society and local community) and eight sub-category indicators (child labour, fair salary, forced labour, health and safety, social benefit/social security, discrimination, contribution to economic development and community engagement) were identified to be relevant to the study. A new method for aggregating and analysing the social inventory data is proposed and used to draw conclusions.Results and discussion
Environmental life cycle assessment results indicated that highest environmental impacts occurred when used PET bottles were disposed by 100 % landfilling while disposal by 75 % flake production and 25 % landfilling gave the least environmental load. Social life cycle assessment results indicated that least social impacts occurred with 75 % flake production and 25 % landfilling. Thus both E-LCA and S-LCA rated 75 % flake production and 25 % landfilling to be the best disposal option.Conclusions
Two dimensions of sustainability (environmental and social) when investigated using the Life Cycle Management tool, favoured scenario 4 (75 %?% flake production and 25 % landfilling) which is a partial recycling disposal route. One hundred percent landfilling was found out to be the worst scenario. The next step will be to explore the third pillar of sustainability, economic, and devise a method to integrate the three dimensions with a view to determine the sustainable disposal option of used PET bottles in Mauritius. 相似文献18.
Li Shen Evert Nieuwlaar Ernst Worrell Martin K. Patel 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2011,16(6):522-536
Purpose
The demand of PET bottles has increased rapidly in the past decades. The purpose of this study is to understand the environmental impact of PET recycling system, in which used bottles are recycled into both fibre and bottles, and to compare the recycling system with single-use PET. 相似文献19.
Life cycle assessment of soil and groundwater remediation technologies: literature review 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
Gitte Lemming Michael Z. Hauschild Poul L. Bjerg 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2010,15(1):115-127
Background, aim, and scope
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming an increasingly widespread tool in support systems for environmental decision-making regarding the cleanup of contaminated sites. In this study, the use of LCA to compare the environmental impacts of different remediation technologies was reviewed. Remediation of a contaminated site reduces a local environmental problem, but at the same time, the remediation activities may cause negative environmental impacts on the local, regional, and global scale. LCA can be used to evaluate the inherent trade-off and to compare remediation scenarios in terms of their associated environmental burden. 相似文献20.
Dominik Saner Tobias Walser Carl O. Vadenbo 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2012,17(4):504-510