Tackling the Relevance of Packaging in Life Cycle Assessment of Virgin Olive Oil and the Environmental Consequences of Regulation

The textile industry is recognized as being one of the most polluting industries. Thus, the European Union aims to transform the textile industry with its “European Green Deal” and “Circular Economy Action Plan”. Awareness regarding the environmental impact of textiles is increasing and initiatives are appearing to make more sustainable products with a strong wish to move towards a circular economy. One of these initiatives is wear2wearTM, a collaboration consisting of multiple companies aiming to close the loop for polyester textiles. However, designing a circular product system does not lead automatically to lower environmental impacts. Therefore, a Life Cycle Assessment study has been conducted in order to compare the environmental impacts of a circular with a linear workwear jacket. The results show that a thoughtful “circular economy system” design approach can result in significantly lower environmental impacts than linear product systems. The study illustrates at the same time the necessity for Life Cycle Assessment practitioners to go beyond a simple comparison of one product to another when it comes to circular economy. Such products require a wider system analysis approach that takes into account multiple loops, having interconnected energy and material flows through reuse, remanufacture, and various recycling practices.

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Analysis and trends for Life Cycle Assessment of olive oil production

Sustainable Production and Consumption ◽

10.1016/j.spc.2019.04.003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 216-230 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Gabriela Espadas-Aldana ◽

Claire Vialle ◽

Jean-Pierre Belaud ◽

Carlos Vaca-Garcia ◽

Caroline Sablayrolles

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Oil Production

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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Lighting Systems and Road Pavements in an Italian Twin-Tube Road Tunnel

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10114165 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 4165 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Giuseppe Cantisani ◽

Paola Di Mascio ◽

Laura Moretti

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Light Emitting Diode ◽

Road Construction ◽

Road Tunnel ◽

Light Emitting ◽

Pavement Materials ◽

Environmental Consequences ◽

Lighting Systems ◽

Reflecting Surface

This work calculates and discusses the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of four scenarios composed of two types of road pavements and two types of lighting systems to be built in an Italian twin-tube road tunnel. A 20-year time horizon is adopted to assess the burdens of construction and maintenance of both flexible and rigid pavements and high-pressure sodium (HPS) and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, traffic, and switching on of lamps. All considered scenarios are comparable with each other in terms of technical performances, but significantly differ regarding their environmental consequences. The geometrical and technical characteristics of the examined scenarios comply with current Italian standards for highways. In all the examined cases, LCA is carried out according to the European standard, EN 15804, and includes 19 impact categories (IC). The analysis demonstrates that the use of more reflecting surface pavement materials (i.e., concrete vs. asphalt) and more performing lighting systems (i.e., LED vs. HPS) can effectively mitigate the deleterious burdens related to road construction, maintenance, and use. For most of the examined ICs, the most environment-friendly scenario has LED lamps and concrete pavement.

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Life Cycle Assessment of waste disposal from olive oil production: Anaerobic digestion and conventional disposal on soil

Journal of Environmental Management ◽

10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.02.021 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 237 ◽

pp. 94-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Esperanza Batuecas ◽

Tonia Tommasi ◽

Federico Battista ◽

Viviana Negro ◽

Giulia Sonetti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Waste Disposal ◽

Oil Production

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Ecological behavior and its environmental consequences: a life cycle assessment of a self-report measure

Journal of Environmental Psychology ◽

10.1016/s0272-4944(02)00075-0 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 11-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

Florian G Kaiser ◽

Gabor Doka ◽

Patrick Hofstetter ◽

Michael A Ranney

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Self Report ◽

Environmental Consequences ◽

Ecological Behavior ◽

Report Measure

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Environmental impacts of olive oil production: a Life Cycle Assessment case study in the province of Messina (Sicily)

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.10.004 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 88-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 92

Author(s):

Roberta Salomone ◽

Giuseppe Ioppolo

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Oil Production

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Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Circularity Assessment to Analyze Environmental Impacts of the Medical Remanufacturing of Electrophysiology Catheters

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13020898 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 898

Author(s):

Anna Schulte ◽

Daniel Maga ◽

Nils Thonemann

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Product Life Cycle ◽

Life Cycles ◽

System Perspective ◽

Global Warming Impact ◽

Environmental Consequences ◽

Abiotic Resource ◽

Single Use ◽

Environmental Savings

Sustaining value after the end-of-life to improve products’ circularity and sustainability has attracted an increasing number of industrial actors, policymakers, and researchers. Medical products are considered to have great remanufacturing potential because they are often designated as single-use products and consist of various complex materials that cannot be reused and are not significant in municipal recycling infrastructure. The remanufacturing of electrophysiology catheters is a well-established process guaranteeing equivalent quality compared to virgin-produced catheters. In order to measure if using a remanufactured product is environmentally beneficial compared to using a virgin product, life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used. However, focusing on one life cycle to inform on the environmental-beneficial use fails to guide policymakers from a system perspective. This study analyzes the environmental consequences of electrophysiology catheters considering two modeling perspectives, the implementation of LCA, including a cut-off approach and combining LCA and a circularity indicator measuring multiple life cycles. Investigating the LCA results of using a remanufactured as an alternative to a newly-manufactured catheter shows that the global warming impact is reduced by 50.4% and the abiotic resource use by 28.8%. The findings from the system perspective suggest that the environmental savings increase with increasing collection rates of catheters.

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