5.10.2.1 life cycle assessment

Question 1

What are life cycle assessments (LCAs)?

Answer 1

They are carried out to assess the environmental impact of products in 4 categories. They determine potential risks and effects that a certain product may have on the ecosphere.

Question 2

(LCAs) Are carried out on what 4 categories?

Answer 2

-extracting and processing raw materials
-manufacturing and packaging
-use and operation during its lifetime
-disposal at the end of its useful life, including transport and distribution at each stage.

Question 3

The use of what 4 things can be fairly easily quantified.

Answer 3

Water, resources, energy sources and reduction of some wastes.

Question 4

Allocating numerical values to pollutant effects is less straightforward and requires value judgements, therefore LCA purely is or isn’t an objective process?

Answer 4

Is not. Inefficient

Question 5

Selective or abbreviated LCAs can be devised to evaluate a product but these are often misused..

Answer 5

To reach pre-determined conclusions, e.g in support of claims for advertising purposes.