- when a company wants to manufacture a new product, they must carry out and LCA
- this assesses the environmental impact of each stage of manufacturing the product
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What are the four stages of an LCA?
1. raw materials
2. manufacture and packaging
3. product usage
4. product disposal
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How can obtaining raw materials damage the environment?
- raw materials often need to be processed
- this requires high amounts of energy
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How can manufacturing and packaging the product damage the environment?
- manufacturing and packaging can use lots of energy resources
- it can cause pollution
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How can using the product damage the environment?
- using products can sometimes release harmful substances
- how long a product is used for/how many times it is used are also determining factors
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How can product disposal damage the environment?
- products can get disposed in landfill sites which pollutes land and water and takes up space
- energy is used to transport waste to landfill
- products might be incinerated which causes air pollution
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Briefly describe some problems with LCA's
- it is difficult to give a numerical value to the effect of some pollutants so producing an LCA depends on the person doing the assessment
- selective LCA's choose to look only at the positives for positive advertising
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What raw materials need to be obtained to make a plastic bag?
Crude oil
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Is crude oil renewable or non-renewable?
Non-renewable
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What raw materials need to be obtained to make a paper bag?
Timber
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Is timber renewable or non-renewable?
Renewable
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What is the manufacture and packaging like for plastic bags?
- they are chemically processed
- lots of energy used
- releases waste
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What is the manufacture and packaging like for paper bags?
- they are chemically processed
- lots of energy used
- releases waste
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Can plastic bags be re-used?
Yes, and they can also be re-purposed
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Can paper bags be re-used?
No, they can only be used once
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How are plastic bags disposed?
Are they recyclable, biodegradable or put in landfill?
- recyclable
- not biodegradable
- put in landfill
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How are paper bags disposed?
Are they recyclable, biodegradable or put in landfill?
- recyclable
- biodegradable
- put in landfill (non-toxic)
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How can glass and metals be reused?
Glass bottles can be crushed and melted to make different glass products.
Metals can be recycled by melting and recasting or reforming into different products.
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Advantages of recycling
Less acid rain(pollution)
Metal ore reserves last longer / conserved energy for extraction saved
Less mining / quarrying
Less waste
Creates local employment
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Disadvantages of recycling
Collection problems
Transport problems/ cost of transport
Difficult to separate metal from appliances/sort
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Raw materials are in _________ ______.
How are raw materials often obtained?
Raw materials are in LIMITED SUPPLY.
They are often obtained by quarrying or mining
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Issues with quarrying
Produces large amounts of dust
Destroys habitats
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Issues with mining
Releases harmful substances into the environment
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Where does the energy to turn raw materials into useful products often come from?
Fossil fuels, which are also in limited supply
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How can we reduce our need for raw materials?
What are the benefits of these methods?
Reusing products
Recycling
This saves limited resources + energy, reduces amount of waste + have a less harmful effect on the environment
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What is the issue with recycling metals?
Different metals need to be separated before recycling
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How can we reduce the amount of iron that we need to extract from iron ore?
Scrap steel can be added to iron from the blast furnace
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What are the four stages of an LCA?
Back
1. raw materials
2. manufacture and packaging
3. product usage
4. product disposal
Card 3
Front
How can obtaining raw materials damage the environment?
Back
Card 4
Front
How can manufacturing and packaging the product damage the environment?
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