Life Cycle Assessment Model of Plastic Products: Comparing Environmental Impacts for Different Scenarios in the Production Stage

A review on e-waste contamination, toxicity, and sustainable clean-up approaches for its management

Ecosystems and human health are being negatively impacted by the growing problem of electrical waste, especially in developing countries. E-waste poses a significant risk to ecological systems because it can release a variety of hazardous substances into the environment, containing polybrominated diphenyl ethers and heavy metals, brominated flame retardants, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins. This review article provides a critical assessment of the toxicological consequences of e-waste on ecosystems and human health and data analyses from scientific journals and grey literature on metals, BFRs, PBDEs, PCDFs, and PAHs in several environmental compartments of commercial significance in informal electronic trash recycling. The currently available techniques and tools employed for treating e-waste are sustainable techniques such as bioremediation, chemical leaching, biological leaching, and pyrometallurgy have been also discussed along with the necessity of implementing strong legislation to address the issue of unregulated exports of electronic trash in recycling practices. Despite the ongoing hurdles, implementing environmentally sustainable recycling methods have the potential to address the detrimental impacts of e-waste and foster positive economic development.

Life Cycle Assessment Model of a Catering Product: Comparing Environmental Impacts for Different End-of-Life Scenarios

This paper assesses the primary energy and environmental impacts of a restaurant main course product’s lifecycle, especially focusing on end-of-life (EoL) stage. In the first step, a cradle-to-grave complex life cycle assessment (LCA) model of the product has been set up from the extraction of the required raw materials through the preparation, cooking and use phase to the end-of-life. In the second step, three scenarios (landfilling, incineration, and composting) were compared for the generated food waste in the end-of-life stage given that one of the biggest challenges in waste management is the optimal management of food waste. We calculated eleven environmental impact categories for the examined food product with the help of GaBi 9.0 software. During our research work, the primary energy was examined in each phase. In the third step, a comparison between the traditional and “sous vide” cooking technologies has been created to optimise of the cooking/frying life cycle phase. This paper basically answers three main questions: (1) How can the main environmental impacts and primary energy throughout the whole life cycle of the examined product be characterised? (2) What methods can optimise the different life cycle stages while reducing and recycling energy and material streams? and (3) what is the most optimal waste management scenario at the end-of-life stage? Based on the analysis, the highest environmental impact comes from the preparation phase and the end-of-life scenario for the traditional incineration caused almost twice the environmental load as the landfilling of the food waste. Composting has the lowest environmental impact, and the value of the primary energy for composting is very low. The sous vide cooking technique is advantageous, and the continuously controlled conditions result in a more reliable process. These research results can be used to design sustainable cooking and catering with lower environmental impacts and energy resources in catering units.

Investigation into the Current State of Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management—A State-of-the-Art Review

Nuclear power can replace fossil fuels and will have a decisive impact on the change in the approach to conventional energy. However, nuclear (or radioactive) wastes are produced by the operation of the nuclear reactors should be safely and properly disposed of. This paper assesses the uranium resources and the global state of nuclear power plants and determines the energy mixes in different countries using the most nuclear energy. Furthermore, this paper analysed the nuclear waste management and disposal and the depletion of abiotic resources, and the primary energy sources of a basic production process using electricity mix and nuclear electricity for a basic production (PET bottle manufacturing) process. The life cycle assessment was completed by applying the GaBi 8.0 (version 10.6) software and the CML method. In this study, we limit our discussion to high-level nuclear waste (HLW) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) waste. We do not consider waste generated from uranium mining and milling, which is usually disposed of in near-surface impoundments close to the mine or the mill. The investigation of waste management methods is limited to European countries. This research work is relevant because determining abiotic resources is important in a life cycle assessment and current literature available on LCA analysis for nuclear powers remains under-developed. These results can guide and compare manufacturing processes involving a nuclear electricity and electricity grid mix input. The results of this research can be used to develop production processes using nuclear energy with lower abiotic depletion impacts. This research work facilitates the industry in making predictions for a production-scale plant using an LCA of production processes with nuclear energy consumption.

Energy-Model and Life Cycle-Model for Grinding Processes of Limestone Products

Fine and ultrafine grinding of limestone are frequently used in the pharmaceutical, chemical, construction, food, and cosmetic industries, however, research investigations have not yet been published on the combination of energy and life cycle modeling. Therefore, the first aim of this research work was the examination of main grinding parameters of the limestone particles to determine an empiric energy-model. Dry and wet grinding experiments have been carried out with a Bond mill and a laboratory stirred ball mill. During the grinding processes, the grinding time and the filling ratio have been adjusted. The second goal of this research assessed the resources, emissions and environmental impacts of wet laboratory grinding with the help of life cycle assessment (LCA). The life cycle assessment was completed by applying the GaBi 8.0 (version: 10.5) software and the CML method. As a result of research, the determination of an empiric energy-model allowed to develop an estimated particle size distribution and a relationship between grinding fineness and specific grinding energy. The particle size distribution of ground materials can be exactly calculated by an empirical Rosin–Rammler function which represented well the function parameters on the mill characters. In accordance with LCA results, the environmental impacts for the mass of a useful product for different levels of specific energy with the building of approximation functions were determined. This research work sets up a new complex model with the help of mathematical equations between life cycle assessment and specific energy results, and so improves the energy and environmental efficiency of grinding systems. This research work facilitates the industry to make predictions for a production-scale plant using an LCA of pilot grinding processes.

The Environmental Impact of Organizations: A Pilot Test from the Packaging Industry Based on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment

This article presents and discusses a pilot test concerning the environmental impacts assessment of organizations. The study was conducted in a production site of a world leading group in the plastic packaging industry. The purpose was to deepen the knowledge of the methodologies currently available and also of the benefits and the difficulties related to their practical implementation. The analysis was conducted in the period 2018–2019, in line with ISO 14044 and ISO/TS 14072 standards and therefore inspired by the organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) procedures and standards. The O-LCA test application has proved useful in detecting a number of environmental hotspots usually not detected by other life cycle based approaches, on which the organization should focus to undertake improvement actions, both internal and external (e.g., the category “employees commuting”). The experience gained in the production site under study also led to the replication of the assessment approach to other facilities around the world and for informing corporate sustainability reporting activities (e.g., Global Reporting Initiative and Carbon Disclosure Project reporting standards). Such results can provide methodological and practical insights to both scholars and practitioners in that field of activities.