Life Cycle assessment

• What is the purpose of a life-cycle assessment?

  To evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or process throughout its entire life cycle.
• What is the process of carrying out a LCA?

  Firstly assess the environmental impact of extracting and processing the raw materials. For Example, polymers such as plastics are produced using crude oil which has to be extracted from the ground and transported to oil refineries where the hydrocarbons have to be separated and then cracked, finally the polymer has to be produced, these processes take a large amount of energy which is generated by burning fossil fuels leading to climate change.
• what is an issue with extracting metals?

  Takes a huge amount of energy, first the ore has to be dug out of the mine and transported for processing. The metal then has to be extracted from the ore which can produce large amounts of toxic waste products.
• What happens once we produce our raw material?

  We can now manufacture our product, package it and transport it. All of these stages will require energy and may release harmful waste products.
• How do we assess the environmental impacts of the product during its lifetime?

  Impacts of batteries- producing batteries releases large amounts of toxic waste.
• How do we assess the disposal of the product at the end of its useful life?

  Many modern products contain a number of harmful chemicals which have to be disposed of carefully which may require a lot of energy, it takes energy to transport used products for disposal as well e.g. to a landfill or recycling Centre.
• How are plastic bags produced?

  By using chemicals from crude oil.
• How are plastic bags produced?

  From wood from trees
• what is the difference between crude oil and trees?

  Crude oil is a non-renewable resource (finite) and trees are a renewable resource.
• What is a negative of crude oil?

  It can be harmful to habitats when extracting it e.g. oil leak
• what is a negative of Using trees?

  Felling trees for wood is extremely destructive to habitats.
• What do both wood and crude oil need to be?

  Chemically processed which requires a large amount of energy and releases waste products.
• What are plastic hopping bags like?

  Strong and are often reused e.g. bin liners
• What are paper shopping bags like?

  Not as strong and tend to tear meaning they are often used only once before being thrown away.
• what happens at they end of plastic and paper bags lives?

  They have to be transported either for recycling or to landfills. Paper bags tend to be heavier than plastic bags meaning they need more energy to transport.
• what is the main problem with plastic bags?

  Plastic is non-biodegradable, it is not broken down by microorganisms. Unlike paper which brakes down quickly, especially when wet. Because plastic is non-biodegradable they remain in the environment for a very long time which makes them a major form of litter and also fill up landfills.
• What are the Pro's and Con's to life cycle assessments?

  Pro's- Can measure the use of water and energy, we can also measure the production of some waste products. Con's- Cannot be certain of how damaging these are to the environment meaning estimates and value judgements have to be made which may not be accurate. LCA's can be bias e.g. to support claims by advertisers