Page 33 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

2 Main Characteristics of LCA 15

4. What is the most environmentally friendly way to package and transport
food?
5. From an environmental perspective, should plastics be incinerated or
recycled and which parameters do the conclusion depend on?
6. Where is the environmental optimum in the trade-off between minimising
heat loss and minimising the use of impact-intensive materials in a
window (see illustrative case on window frames in Chap. 39)?
7. Should a plastic zipper be added to cheese packaging to reduce household
food waste and thereby reduce the overall environmental impacts of
cheese?
8. Is it more environmentally friendly to do the dishes manually or using a
dishwasher?
9. Should a company target its own processes, its suppliers, its customers or
the waste management sector in the effort of reducing the environmental
impact of its products?
10. Are electric cars more environmentally friendly than conventional
internal combustion engine cars and what are the important parameters
deciding this (see Chap. 27)?
Examples of questions LCA cannot answer:

1. Should taxes on old diesel cars be increased to reduce emissions of par-
ticles and thereby reduce hospital spending on treating lung diseases?
Explanation: LCA cannot be used to compare the societal disadvantages of
higher taxes with advantages of less pollution. Cost benefit analysis combined
with Health Assessment Studies would be a better tool for answering this
question.
2. Do current emissions from a specific factory lead to pollutant concen-
trations above regulatory thresholds in nearby aquatic ecosystems?
Explanation: LCA is not designed to evaluate impacts of a single emission
source on local ecosystems and contains no information on regulatory
thresholds. Chemical risk assessment is a more appropriate tool for answering
this question.

3. Do total global emissions of endocrine disruptors cause polar bears to
become hermaphrodites?
Explanation: LCA is not designed to assess a specific effect on a specific
organism from a specific group of chemicals. It would be more meaningful to
measure the concentration of endocrine disruptors in (deceased) polar bears
and compare those measurements with observed occurrences of hermaphro-
dite individuals.