Life cycle assessments

• What do life cycle assessments analyze?

  The different stages in a product's life cycle
• What are the four main stages of a life cycle assessment?

  Extraction, manufacturing, usage, disposal
• What is important to understand about the stages of life cycle assessments?

  To generally understand them, not memorize
• How does extracting resources from nature impact the environment?

  It often directly damages the local environment
• What can processing materials indirectly damage the environment?

  Energy requirements and pollutant release
• What are three main problems associated with manufacturing and packaging?

  Energy use, pollution release, waste production
• What happens to waste products from manufacturing?

  They often have to be disposed of
• What two factors should be considered when using a product?

  Lifetime damage and usage duration
• How does the usage of a product affect its environmental impact?

  Depends on damage during lifetime and usage
• What is the impact of placing a product in landfill?

  It takes up space and may release chemicals
• What happens when waste products are burned?

  They may release pollutants into the atmosphere
• What is the raw material for plastic bags?

  Crude oil
• How are paper bags made?

  From wood, reducing animal habitats
• What is required to manufacture plastic bags from crude oil?

  Fractional distillation and cracking hydrocarbons
• What process is used to manufacture paper bags?

  Pulping timber into small pieces
• How do plastic and paper bags differ in terms of reuse?

  Plastic bags can be reused multiple times
• What is a major disadvantage of plastic bags regarding disposal?

  They are not biodegradable
• Why are paper bags considered better for disposal?

  They are biodegradable and non-toxic
• What is a limitation of life cycle assessments?

  Complexity makes quantifying steps difficult
• Why can life cycle assessments be manipulated?

  Complexity can support specific companies
• What is a challenge in comparing environmental impacts?

  Assessing harm of different pollutants
• What is a common issue with life cycle assessment data?

  It can be hard to notice manipulation