Life Cycle Assessments

• What is the focus of today's video?

  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 focus on in life cycle assessments?

  Understanding stages, not memorizing facts
• How does resource extraction impact the environment?

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

  The environment through energy use and pollutants
• What are three main problems in manufacturing and packaging?

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

  They are often useless and disposed of
• What two factors must be considered when using a product?

  Lifetime damage and usage duration
• How does the usage of a durable bag compare to a single-use bag?

  A durable bag is used thousands of times
• What is the impact of placing products in landfill?

  It takes up space and can 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 that reduces animal habitats
• What is required to manufacture plastic bags?

  Cracking hydrocarbons from fractional distillation
• What process is used to make paper bags?

  Pulping timber into small pieces
• How do plastic bags compare to paper bags in usage?

  Plastic bags can be reused multiple times
• Why are plastic bags considered bad for disposal?

  They are not biodegradable and harm wildlife
• What are the advantages of paper bags 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?

  They can support a company's advertising agenda
• What is a challenge in comparing environmental impacts?

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

  It can be complex and hard to notice manipulation