Implications Of Wider Issues Flashcards
Implications of wider issue
- every new product will have an impact on the environment
- encouraged to use environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of manufacture and materials
What is a life-cycle assessment (LCA)
It interprets and evaluates the environmental impact of a product from ‘cradle to grave’
- from extraction of raw materials to manufacturing the product to end of use/disposal
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product: acquisition of raw materials
- energy needed for extraction e.g. oil
- environmental impacts of mining, deforestation etc
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product: transportation of raw materials
- consider oil tank disasters, air pollution
- Electric cars are cleaner but generating the energy impacts environment
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product: processing of raw materials
- E.g. smelting, making polymers from oil
- this pollutes and requires vast amounts of energy
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product: manufacturing the product
- Industry requires energy for machine/lighting/heating and chemicals to dye fabrics which have an environmental impact
- manufacturing doesn’t take place in the same area as material processing so transportation is needed to and from the factory which involves considerable energy Usage and impacts on the environment
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product: using the product
- some products require no further energy usage
- however cars and washing machines use a significant amounts of energy
- some products e.g. milk bottles are reused and so energy is used for cleaning them
Analyse the energy needs in the life-cycle of a product:
Disposal and recycling
- landfills impact
- The collection of waste requires energy
- incineration centres use energy to dispose of waste although many reclaim the energy created by incineration for useful purposes
- recycling uses a lot of energy but will use less raw materials and conserve valuable natural resources
facts about the recycling of polymers
- The UK uses 5 million tons of polymers a year
- only 29% are recovered/recycled
- A half of the polymer bottles collected in the UK are now processed there
Examples of a life-cycle: polymer bottle
- made from PET polymer (crude oil) so oil extraction releases greenhouse gases and harms habitats and environment, it also has to be transported to refinery
- shipped to manufacture to create polymer pellets, these are melted down taking up energy
- in bottling plants the pellets are blowmolded, sterilised and sealed before being kept, labelled and packed using a lot of electricity and then ship to shops
- consumers purchase bottles and then recycle them/end up in landfill. During recycling, they are shredded and washed, then melted down and formed into pellets
Improvements due to LCA’s
- cars are manufactured at production plants: materials into one end and completed cars exit the other
- improved recycling
- lighter cars which use less energy
- Electric cars mean no local emissions, however, creating that energy could have released CO2 so this can only be done if renewable energy sources are used, otherwise there are no ecological benefits
What are the two different footprints
We consume natural resources e.g. energy and materials and produce waste and pollution. These give us an ecological footprint
- The impact on environment and natural resources
and social footprint
- The impact we have on other people
What is a carbon footprint and what two types are there
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activity
1) primary footprint measures our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels, including domestic energy consumption and transportation
2) secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 missions from the products we use
What does the worldwide fund for nature estimate
They estimate that the average ecological footprint of the person is 5.6 hectors, three times what is considered to be sustainable.
- if everyone consumed like we did we would need three planets to sustain us
Natural materials
- comes from plants, animals or the ground
E.g. Wood, wool, leather, stone, glass, metal, clay, synthetic materials made from chemicals e.g. polymers, synthetic fabrics e.g. polyester, nylon and Kevlar
About metals
- found in ores that naturally occur in the earths crust which formed millions of years ago
- smelting of silver emits sulphur dioxide, leading to acid rain and acidification of waterways and soil
- Gold is found in rock that contains acid generating sulphides and its mining produces more unwonted rock that of the mining metals
- this means specific permission is needed to mine it and any pollution can result in criminal prosecution for environmental reasons
Issues with mining
- The mining process extract ores and has a harmful impact on environment; destroys habitats, creates waste, affects landscape and consumers lot of energy
- it also affects the lives of those who live and work near sites as dust and noise pollution is created; can also cause subsidence (caving/sinking of an area)
- produces carbon monoxide which is A social impact and carbon dioxide which is an environmental impact
LCA- Audi example
- Audi A6 has reduced its weight by 80 kg
- every part of the car can be recycled
about timber
- the use of timber without replacement of trees has led to deforestation , soil erosion and landslides
- hardwoods - deciduous, softwoods - coniferous
- 50% of mahogany species in Asia are endangered
- man made boards are environmentally beneficial since they can be made from waste wood
FSC info
- The Forest stewardship council
- ensures that harvesting of timber doesn’t have an impact on the biodiversity or ecological processes of the worlds forests
- FSC certified means the timber has been harvested in an environmentally responsible way