2.3 Environmental Issues Flashcards
What is a life cycle assessment?
It measures the impacts on the environment associated with the life cycle of a product, process, or service.
What are the parts of a life cycle assessment?
- Raw material extraction
- manufacturing
- distribution
- use
- disposal/recycling
What are the 6 Rs?
- How to minimise waste production at the end of the life cycle stage.
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recycle
- Rethink
- Refuse
- Repair
What can a designer do to minimise waste and reduce the environmental impact?
- Make products easy to disassemble for recycling.
- Limit the use of toxic materials.
- Use biodegradable materials where possible.
- Arrange collection of materials at the end of life stage.
What is REDUCE?
The process of reducing a product or material into waste material either through incineration or decomposition.
What are the benefits of Reduction?
- Reduced amount of space occupied in a landfill.
- Reduced pollution.
- Release of energy
What is REUSE?
- The repeated use of a product or material in its original form
- E.g. second hand cars, glass bottles
What are the benefits of Reuse?
- It saves natural resources and reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills
- better for the environment than recycling because it doesn’t use resources, time or money to process materials or products into new usable items.
What’s RECYCLING?
- The process of separating, collecting, processing, and finally using a material that would normally be discarded.
- The materials are reused, or remanufactured into new products.
- Materials such as glass, paper, card, wood and metal are all sources of recycled materials
What’s RETHINK?
Rethinking the way a product is manufactured and redesigned can have a positive impact on the amount and type of materials used.
What is REFUSE?
Refusing to use certain types of materials with the design and manufacturing process and using a more sustainable material instead.
What’s REPAIR?
When a product is broken, consider whether it can be repaired rather than being discarded.
What is are the benefits of Repair?
Repair can help save on cost and minimise the use of renewable materials and energy used in the manufacturing process.
What does Biodegradable mean?
- Are Plastics that are designed to degrade upon disposal by the action of living organisms.
- Progress has been made in the development of practical processes and products from Polymers
What does Degradable mean?
Polymers that are resistant to water and maintain their structure during normal use but readily degrade in a biologically-rich environment.
