Lifestyle Assesments And Recyling

Question 1

What do life cycle assessments do

Answer 1

Assess all 4 stages of a products life to try and calculate its total environmental cost

They allow us to compare environmental impacts of products

Question 2

4 stages of a products life cycle

Answer 2

Collecting raw materials needed

Making and packaging product

Product use

Disposal of product

Question 3

Difficulties with life cycle assessments

Answer 3

Subjective elements - post LCAs have subjective parts to them( parts based on someone’s opinion) meaning they can be biased

Missing details - sometimes LACs will choose to ignore certain environmental impacts of a product. This is called Selective LACs
These can be exploited by biased company’s to create positive advertisement

Question 4

Reducing usage of resources by reusing and recycling existing materials could

Answer 4

Reduce waste production - less landfills

Increase efficiency - in terms of cost and energy consumption

Reduce environmental damage - reduced need for resource extraction = less mining

Sustainability- ensure there’s raw materials for future generations

Question 5

Process of recycling glass

Answer 5

Sort - by splitting apart Glass with different colours and chemistry

Crush - the glass

Melt

Reshape

Question 6

Why is recycling mtals better than mining and extracting new resources

Answer 6

Less energy required

Fewer waste rock heaps and landscape scars

Reduces buring of fossil fuels

Conserves bon renewable resources