Abstract
In this report, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is applied to compare the lifecycle of tap water and bottled water using the four assessment methods. The results of inventory analysis and impact assessment shows that the tap water and glass bottled water production processes play an important role in almost all of the analysed parameters. The processes that have was examined include production and transportation, the quantification of the energy used and the potential contributions to impact categories was also evaluated.
It was realised that the glass bottle water production shows a relatively higher energy requirement as well as overall higher contribution to environmental impact in Climate change, ozone layer, Exotoxicity, acidification/eutrophication, respiratory organics, respiratory inorganics, radiation, carcinogens, land use and minerals.
1:Introduction
Presently, industries and businesses are assessing how their activities affect the environment due to increases environmental awareness. Also, the Society is becoming more concerned about the issues of natural resource depletion and environmental degradation and many industries have responded to this awareness by providing “sustainable” products and using “sustainable” processes.
Drinking water is a basic necessity, but how can this basic need be satisfied in an environmentally friendly manner. This analysis compares the entire life cycle from the water extraction to serving it up in a glass bottle in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
The systems that have been assessed in this study are: the production of inputs of tap water and glass bottle, transportation, energy used and the manufacturing process. This study was carried out with the use of the SimaPro 7 software for the inventory and interpretation of the analysis.
Eco-indicator 99 (l) V2.02/Europe El 99 l/l was used as an assessment method in which the various materials and products are weighted with regard to the impact caused by them to the environment.
2:Benefits of conducting Life Cycle Assessment
* Life cycle analysis encourages a more informed and broader view of the environmental impact of a product. It helps decision-makers select the product or process that results in the least impact to the environment. This information can be used alongside other factors, such as cost and performance data to select a product or process.
* LCA helps to avoids generalisations about the environmental performance of a product in isolation to its total life cycle. Rather, it openly acknowledges the assumptions made, and tests the effects of the assumptions.
* LCA allows producers and consumers to compare relatively, the significance of different types of environmental impacts with caution.
* LCA helps to avoid the Shifting environmental problems from one place to another; It allows a decision maker to study an entire product system thus, avoiding a sub-optimization that could result if only a single process were the focus of the study. For example, when choosing between two rival products, it may appear that product A is better for the environment because it generates less solid waste than product B.
However, after performing an LCA it might be discovered that the first product actually creates larger cradle-to-grave environmental impacts when measured across all three media i.e. air, land and water e.g. it may cause more emissions of chemicals during its manufacturing stage. Therefore, the second product that produces solid more waste may be viewed as producing less cradle-to-grave environmental harm or impact than the first technology due its lower chemical emissions.
This ability to track and document shifts in environmental impacts of products can help decision makers to fully characterize the environmental trade-offs associated with product alternatives.
By conducting an LCA, analysts will be able to;
* Analyze the environmental trade-offs associated with one or more specific products to help gain stakeholder’s acceptance for a planned action.
* Quantify the environmental emissions to air, water, and land in relation to each life cycle stage and the major contributing process.
* Develop an efficient assessment of the environmental consequences associated with a given product.
3:Challenges encountered in conducting Life Cycle Assessment
Performing an LCA could be time and resource intensive. Depending on how comprehensive the user wishes to conduct, gathering the data can be problematic, and the availability of data can greatly impact on the accuracy of the final results. Therefore, it is important to consider the availability of data, the time required to accomplish the study, and the financial resources necessary against the anticipated benefits of the LCA. Table 1 below shows the general challenges of LCA.
Table 1:The general challenges and difficulties of LCA methodology.
Goal definition and scoping |
In conducting an LCA, the cost may be prohibitive to small firms; also, the required time to conduct LCA may exceed product development constraints especially for short development cycles; the temporal and spatial magnitude of a dynamic product system are complex to address; definition of functional units for the evaluation of design alternatives can be problematic; allocation methods used in defining system boundaries have inherent weaknesses; complex products (e.g. automobiles) entails huge resources to analyse. |
Data collection |
Availability of data and access can be limiting e.g. proprietary data; data quality, including bias, precision completeness and accuracy ,are frequently not well addressed. |
Data Evaluation |
Sophisticated models and model parameters for evaluating resource depletion, human health and ecosystem, may not be available or their ability to represent the product system may be repulsive. Thus most times, uncertainty analyses of the results are often not conducted. |
Information transfer |
Design decision-makers often lack knowledge about environmental effects, and aggregation and simplification techniques may distort results. Synthesis of environmental effect categories is limited because they are incommensurable. |
According to (Keoleian, 2003)”Both cost and time constraints currently limit the
practice of LCA”. Most small companies are not likely to be able to afford specializing in LCA and even for larger firms, the benefits of investment in LCA may not be apparent immediately. In some cases, possible cost savings may not be identified unless full cost accounting systems have been instituted.
Therefore, in other for it to be more cost effective, it should be incorporated into the existing environmental management system and information systems within a firm.
Also, LCA will not conclude on which product is the most cost effective or works the best. Therefore, the information developed in an LCA should be used as one component of a more comprehensive decision process in assessing the trade-offs with cost and performance, an example is Life Cycle Management.
4:Present quality examples of uses of LCA.
One example of the uses of Life cycle assessment is its application in the pulp and paper industry. Life cycle assessment is used to compare the environmental impact of the use of two kinds of fuel i.e. heavy fuel oil and natural gas, in the pulp and paper production process.
Another, LCA methodology can be applied to agricultural production. An example is the Life cycle analysis of sugar beet production using different forms of nitrogen fertilizers. It could be used in this aspect to quantify and evaluate the impact of the choice of different N fertilisers on the environmental burden associated with the sugar beet production system.
Also, it could be applied in the bakery industry. An example is the life cycle analysis of bread production by comparing homemade bread or industrial bread. In this context, it could be used to compare the environmental effects of producing bread at home or at the bakery showing which type of bread production has less environmental effects and how the environmental effects can be reduced.
5:Guidance and LCA standards
There are international standard which help us undertake LCAs in a standard way.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies) and the ISO technical committees produce international standards on a variety of topics.
The ISO 14000 series
The ISO 14000 series relates to numerous facets of environmental management. These series includes ISO 14040 – 14043 and they were prepared by the Technical Committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental Management Subcommittee SC 5, Life Cycle Assessment. While ISO recognizes that LCA is still in a growing stage of development, ISO 14040-14043 is a consensus-based, voluntary set of standards pertaining to LCA.