Life Cycle Assessment Comparison Of Plastic And Glass Water Bottles

Service Wanted and Alternatives

The objective of this report is to provide a comparison between two water bottles made from different materials manufactured using different materials. The assessment is based on the social efficiency, economic efficiency as well as environmental impact of the cycle of the product, that is from the point of manufacturing to the time of retirement of disposal (Ban, et al., 2012).

The service wanted is a water bottle that is able to effectively and comfortably used as well as that which is sustainable and supporting the going- green agenda (Battarbee & Binney, 2008). The sustainability of the bottle is sassed in terms of the its suitability towards being environmentally friendly, bio- degradable, recyclable, ozone friendly and contribution towards global warming (Ban, et al., 2012).

Two Alternatives of water bottles that are considered in this report are the plastic water bottle and the glass water bottle. The life- cycle of the two products will be assessed using a software. The assessment involve acquisition of raw material, processing of material, manufacturing and assembly, the uses and services of the products and the retirement and retirement (Fan, et al., 2011). The assessment also involves the investigation of the possible materials that are re- used, recycled or remanufactured (Sarancha, et al., 2014).

GaBi software will be used for the life cycle assessment process. GaBi software is a program for conducting life assessment modelling (Veronica, et al., 2011). The assessment is made up definition of scope and goal, analyzing the inventory, assessing the possible impacts well interpretating the results (Huijbregts, et al., 2015). The goal and scope definition involves the analysis off the purpose of the life cycle analysis and the target audience of the assessment (Curran & Marry, 2012). The inventory analysis on the other hand involves the functional unit of the assessment, the boundaries of the assessment, the required data set for purposeful analysis, the assumptions taken into consideration and similarly the limitations of the assessment process (Curran & Marry, 2012). Similarly, assessment of impact involves assessing the effects of the product’s cycle on the environment (Vahe & Susanna, 2008). The effects could be on the atmosphere, social effects and effects on the economy (Curran & Marry, 2012).

Procedure recommended by ISO have been followed to ensure the assessment of life cycle is conducted in a specific way (Ara, 2011). The procedure can be represented in a flow chart as shown in the diagram below. The flow chart is a brief outline of the procedure recommended by the ISO for conducting a life cycle assessment

 Stages of analysis using GaBi software include defining of goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact analysis and interpretation (Fan, et al., 2011). This implies that a life cycle analysis is like an iterative process where a process is repeated again and again to get the desired result (Surviatkina, 2008).  

Goal definition stage outlines the assessment purpose, the targeted group or groups, the decisions of the assessment as well as the extent of the decisions that are in place (Connolly, et al., 2014). In our case, the goal involve a decision on whether to use a plastic water bottle or a glass water bottle (Suroviatkina & Semenova, 2014). The decision is based on impact of these two alternative products on the environment and their contribution towards the going green initiative. The decision also involves the sustainability in terms of the environmental effects, economic effects as well as social effects.

GaBi Software and LCA Procedure

Scope definition of the other hand tells much about the product scope of the product to be assessed, the services that the product is capable of offering (the alternative products as well), the portion of the product that should be included and finally the environmental exchanges that are involved. The solution to base on this case is the effects that the two products (plastic water bottle and glass water bottle) have on the environment.

Environmental effects of a plastic water bottle is that the product is made from products that are not bio- degradable.

Inventory assessment looks at a number of aspects such as the data required, the quality of these data that are used for analysis, the systems that are needed as well as how to handle any uncertainties that might arise from the aspects of the data collected.

Estimated weight of the components of each alternative can be shown below. Data in our case include the materials needed to make 1 peace of a 500 milliliters water bottle. For a piece of plastic water bottle, the following materials are required:

Similarly, for a glass water bottle, the following materials are used;

Impact assessment section on the other hand outlines the consumption of resources and the potential impacts of the product use to the environment, to the economy and the social aspect (Simon, et al., 2008). The assessment outlines important impacts as well as those impacts that are considered as the most important. Similarly, we also assess the possible data gaps that exists in the product manufacturing process.

The following output was obtained from the step by step analysis using GaBi.

Conclusion

Based on the outputs above, it is demonstrated that the plastic water bottle have a higher emissions of toxic materials such as carbon into the atmosphere. Plastic materials are not bio-degradable as well (H & B, 2009). This implies that a glass water bottle is clearly the best option (Dehnen, 2011). Similarly, it is possible to see that the cost of manufacturing the two alternatives re the same, implying that given one option, glass is still the best option. Glass is satisfactorily environmentally friendly than a plastic water bottle. Furthermore, the major identified hotspot include biodegradability, economic and social responsibility (Frano, 2009).

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Assessment of Life Cycle using GaBi

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