LCA

• LCA shows the environmental impact of each of these stages in a product's life:

  • extracting raw materials
  • processing and shipping materials
  • manufacturing and packaging
  • product shipping
  • product usage
  • product disposal
• limitations of LCA:

  • not easy to quantify the effects of pollutants, as we are unsure of the overall effect, so subjective value judgments are used
  • they are not purely objective as a mix of numerical values and value judgments are used
• carbon footprint measures the total amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases emitted over the full cycle of something, whereas LCA analyses the total environmental effect e.g. water use and waste
• advantages of recycling metals:

  • divert waste from landfills as metals do not degrade quickly
  • reduces energy use
  • protects natural resources and raw materials
• disadvantages of recycling metals:

  • contaminated metals can't be recycled
  • some metals are energy intensive to recycle
  • some metals are used in ways that make them hard to recycle
  • recycling systems are less efficient for some metals