Life Cycle Assessments and Recycling

Question 1

What are Life Cycle Assessments?

Answer 1

They assess every stage of a product’s lifetime in order to evaluate total environmental costs. We can compare product’s LCAs to see which is more harmful.

Question 2

What four stages need to be considered in LCAs

Answer 2

1) acquiring raw materials
2) manufacturing and packing
3) product use
4) product disposal

Question 3

Why can a paper bag be more harmful than a plastic bag?

Answer 3

• The manufacturing requires more energy
• Lifespan is shorter

Question 4

Difficulties associated with LCAs:

Answer 4

• can be biased as environmental impact involves personal judgement
• selective LCAs only use some of a product’s environmental impact. So this can be exploited to create positive advertising.

Question 5

Effect or reusing and recycling:

Answer 5

• reduce waste production
• sustainability - ensures preservation of raw materials for future generations
• increased efficiency of cost and energy consumption
• reducing resource extraction (environmental damage)
• reduces burning of fossil fuels
• less energy required

Question 6

The process of recycling:

Answer 6

1) Melt the metal down
2) Reshape the molten metal

Question 7

The process of recycling glass:

Answer 7

1) Sort - by colour and chemical composition
2) Crush
3) Melt
4) Reshape