4.10.2 Life cycle assessment and recycling Flashcards
What is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
LCAs assess the environmental impact of products at each stage: extracting raw materials, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
What stages are evaluated in a Life Cycle Assessment?
- Extracting and processing raw materials
- Manufacturing and packaging
- Use and operation during its lifetime
- Disposal at the end of its useful life.
What can be easily quantified in an LCA?
Use of water, resources, energy sources, and production of some wastes.
What is a challenge in quantifying pollutant effects in LCAs?
Allocating numerical values to pollutant effects requires value judgments, making LCA not purely objective.
What is a selective or abbreviated LCA?
An LCA that can be misused to reach pre-determined conclusions, often for advertising purposes.
What should students be able to do with LCAs for shopping bags?
Students should be able to carry out simple comparative LCAs for plastic and paper shopping bags.
What is the purpose of conducting LCAs?
To compare the environmental impact of the stages in a product’s life.
What is one way to reduce the use of resources?
Reduction in use, reuse, and recycling of materials by end users.
What materials are produced from limited raw materials?
Metals, glass, building materials, clay ceramics, and most plastics.
How can glass bottles be reused?
Glass bottles can be crushed and melted to make different glass products.
How are metals recycled?
Metals can be recycled by melting and recasting or reforming into different products.
What is an example of recycling in steel production?
Some scrap steel can be added to iron from a blast furnace to reduce the amount of iron extracted from iron ore.
What should students be able to evaluate regarding resource use?
Students should be able to evaluate ways of reducing the use of limited resources.
