Life Cycle Analysis and Resource Management

Dr. Forbes McDougallProcter & GambleUK

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Presentation aims:

1) Examine the use of LCA within an overall environmental management framework to assess the environmental impact of packaging options and waste management systems 2) Look at how LCA can be applied to packaging, products and waste management 3) Use LCA to help assess the cost effectiveness of specific environmental initiatives

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Sustainability is :A balance between the needs of the Environment, the Economy and Society

Environmentallyeffective

Economicallyaffordable

Sociallyacceptable

SUSTAINABILITY

Economically (and technically) Feasible,

An environmental management framework

OBJECTIVE

Socially acceptable,

Environmental Management

towards Sustainability

An environmental management framework

1. Ensure Human and Environmental Safety

2. Ensure Regulatory Compliance

3. Ensure Efficient Resource Use and Waste Management

4. Ensure Social Concerns are Addressed

OBJECTIVE

Economically (and technically) Feasible, Socially acceptable,

Environmental Management towards Sustainability

An environmental management framework

Safety• Human Health Risk Assessment• Ecological Risk Assessment

• Economic analysis• Product & process LCA• Eco-design• Disposal company auditing• Material consumption monitoring and reduction• Manufacturing site mgmt. systems auditing• Manufacturing site environmental auditing• Auditing major & new suppliers

Resource Use and Waste Management

Regulatory Compliance• Manufacturing site mgmt.. systems auditing• Manufacturing site wastes reporting• Material consumption reporting• New chemicals testing and registration• Product & packaging classification & labeling

• Understand & anticipate• Interact

Addressing Social Concerns

OBJECTIVE

Economically (and technically) Feasible, Socially acceptable,

Environmental Management towards Sustainability

An environmental management framework

Organisation

DECISION MAKING

Safety

Resource Use and Waste Management

Regulatory Compliance• Manufacturing site mgmt.. systems auditing• Manufacturing site wastes reporting• Material consumption reporting• New chemicals testing and registration• Product & packaging classification & labeling

Addressing Social Concerns

OBJECTIVE

Economically (and technically) Feasible, Socially acceptable,

Environmental Management towards Sustainability

Data

• Human Health Risk Assessment• Ecological Risk Assessment

• Economic analysis• Product & process LCA• Eco-design• Disposal company auditing• Material consumption monitoring and reduction• Manufacturing site mgmt. systems auditing• Manufacturing site environmental auditing• Auditing major & new suppliers

• Understand & anticipate• Interact

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) within the overall environmental management framework

RESOURCE USE AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

•Economic analysis•Product and process LCA •Eco-design •Disposal company auditing•Material consumption monitoring and reduction •Manufacturing site management systems auditing •Auditing major & new suppliers

Interpretation

Goal& scope

definition

InventoryAnalysis

ImpactAssessment

Direct applications :

• Product development and improvement.

• Strategic planning.

• Public policy making.

• Marketing.• Other.

Life Cycle Assessment framework

- not included in an LCI study

Phases of LCA (taken from ISO 14040)

- included in an LCI study

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Decreasing objectivity and reliability across a LCA

 Objectivity

Inventoryresults

Impactpotential

e.g. GWPindicator

Weighting“scores”

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Impactpotential

e.g. toxicityindicator

The Impact Assessment phase of LCA:

• is a simple indicator system• has no direct linkage to environmental effects or significance• often uses subjective judgments and scores• is not easy to use for comparisons

What is a Life Cycle Inventory?

The first two stages of a full Life Cycle Assessment

• Goal definition • Inventory analysis

Together constitute the process of Life Cycle Inventory

LCI is a tool for predicting the environmental burdens associated with particular products or services

A LCI is an inventory of all the systems :• InputsInputs (in terms of resources, including energy)• OutputsOutputs (in terms of emissions to air water and land)

LCI can therefore identify opportunities to optimize life cycles by:• Reducing resource use Reducing resource use • Producing fewer emissionsProducing fewer emissions

What does a LCI do?

EnergyWater

Raw Materials

Raw Material Sourcing

Processing

Manufacture

Distribution

Use

Post consumer Disposal

Airborne emissionsWaterborne emissions

Solid Waste

INPUTS OUTPUTS

System boundary for a Life Cycle Inventory

LCI BOUNDARY

Raw Material extraction

Manufacture

Distribution

Use

Waste management

Life Cycle of a Product

Raw Material extraction

Manufacture

Distribution

Use

Waste management

PRODUCTS

LCA BOUNDARY

Life Cycle of Solid Waste

LCA for Manufacturers

Raw Material extraction

Manufacture

Distribution

Use

Waste management

PRODUCTS

LCA for Waste Managers

Practical Environment Optimisation

Detergent LCI: resultsOverall profile for the UK (compact detergent)

Solid waste

Energy CO2

BOD

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

Supply

ManufacturingConsumer

PackagingWWTP

• > 70% of energy consumption occurs at consumer phase, due to heating of water.

• CO2 emissions are mainly energy related.

• > 98% of the BOD emissions occur at the WWTP, this represents less than 8% of total BOD present in product (weighted average).

• Solid waste represents ashes from energy combustion, packaging and sludge generation.

Detergent LCI: interpretation of results

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Nappy LCA: results

Concluded:

“there was no significant difference between any of the environmental impacts – that is, overall no system clearly had a better or worse environmental performance.”

UK Environment Agency study May 2005

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Sustainable Waste Management

• Environmentally effective

• Economically affordable

• Socially acceptable

Needs to be

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A Waste Management HierarchyA hierarchy lists options in order of “preference”

Reuse

Reduce

Materials Recovery

Energy Recovery

Landfill/ Incineration(without Energy Recovery)

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• Has no measurable scientific basis

• Cannot consider combinations of treatment technologies

• Does not address cost issues

Waste HierarchyHas limitations

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Solid Waste Management

• Accepting the concept of an integrated approach to solid waste management

• Using a Life Cycle Assessment tool (computer model) to optimise the integrated waste management system

Sustainable Systems can be engineered by :

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IWM :

• Takes an overall approach and manages waste in an environmentally effective and economically affordable way

• Involves the use of a range of different treatment options at a local level

• Considers the entire solid waste stream

Integrated Waste Management (IWM)The Concept

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MATERIALSRECYCLING

BIOLOGICALTREATMENT

THERMAL TREATMENT LANDFILL

COLLECTION&

SORTING

Integrated Waste Management (IWM)Includes :

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IWM Systems

• Overall environmental burdens(Overall economic cost)

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool makes this possible

How can we plan systems that are environmentally and economically sustainable ?

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OUTPUTS Air Emissions

Water Emissions

Residual Landfill

Material

INPUTSWaste

Energy

Other Materials

Money

COLLECTION&

SORTING

Secondary Materials

Compost UsefulEnergy

MATERIALS

RECYCLING

BIOLOGICAL

TREATMENT

THERMAL

TREATMENTLANDFILL

PRODUCTS

Integrated Waste ManagementA Life Cycle Assessment

Environmental Effectiveness

IWM

USE

Raw materialsourcing

Manufacture

Distribution

Retail

PRODUCTS

WasteManagement

USE

Raw materialsourcing

Manufacture

Distribution

Retail

PRODUCTS

WasteManagement

SEGREGATED WASTE MANAGEMENT

INTEGRATED WASTEMANAGEMENT

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Solid Waste

LCA originally used to compare products/packaging from “cradle to grave”

A Life Cycle Model

A Life Cycle model for solid waste calculates:• total energy consumption

• emissions to air and water

• final solid waste

• (overall economic costs)

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Life Cycle Models

• Net energy consumption

• Air emissions

• Water emissions

• Landfill volume (residual)

• Recovered materials

• Compost

Results

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From Life Cycle Model results to sustainability

Environmental sustainability• more useful products• less emissions• less final inert waste• less energy consumed

(Economic sustainability)• less money to pay for the system

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Using LCA to help assess the cost effectiveness of specific environmental initiatives

• Use existing waste management strategy as “Baseline”, model entire system including all relevant costs

• Compare the performance of different Integrated Waste Management strategies

• Choose optimum Integrated Waste Management strategy based on needs of local environment, economy and population

Strategy developmentComparisons using Life Cycle model results

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How to choose between options ?

• Single criterion - where there is a single over-riding concern (e.g. lack of landfill space)

• Multiple criteria - where more than one issue is important (e.g. energy consumption and air emissions)

• “Less is better” - where one option is lower in all categories

• Impact analysis - combine categories that contribute to the same effect such as global warming

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LCA

• IWM concept and LCA tools can help us move towards affordable environmental sustainability

• Using LCA is better than other arbitrary approaches• More and higher quality data are needed, to make better

decisions• A variety of waste management systems are required to

meet local needs

Conclusions

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Our contribution

English version - combined sales of over 10,000 copies

Also available in Spanish, Chinese and Japanese

Life Cycle models for Municipal Solid Wastenow produced by UK EA, US EPA, and in Germany,Austria, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Australia ……

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