Developing Buildings’ Life Cycle Assessment in Circular Economy-Comparing methods for assessing carbon footprint of reusable components

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic led to threatening shortages in healthcare of medical products such as face masks. Due to this major impact on our healthcare society an initiative was conducted between March and July 2020 for reprocessing of face masks from 19 different hospitals. This exceptional opportunity was used to study the costs impact and the carbon footprint of reprocessed face masks relative to new disposable face masks. The aim of this study is to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to assess and compare the climate change impact of disposed versus reprocessed face masks. In total 18.166 high quality medical FFP2 face masks were reprocessed through steam sterilization between March and July 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions during production, transport, sterilization and end-of-life processes were assessed. The background life cycle inventory data were retrieved from the ecoinvent database. The life cycle impact assessment method ReCiPe was used to translate emissions into climate change impact. The cost analysis is based on actual sterilization as well as associated costs compared to the prices of new disposable face masks. A Monte Carlo sampling was used to propagate the uncertainty of different inputs to the LCA results. The carbon footprint appears to be 58% lower for face masks which were reused for five times compared to new face masks which were used for one time only. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the loading capacity of the autoclave and rejection rate of face masks has a large influence on the carbon footprint. The estimated cost price of a reprocessed mask was €1.40 against €1.55. The Life Cycle Assessment demonstrates that reprocessed FFP2 face masks from a circular economy perspective have a lower climate change impact on the carbon footprint than new face masks. For policymakers it is important to realize that the carbon footprint of medical products such as face masks may be reduced by means of circular economy strategies. This study demonstrated a lower climate change impact and lower costs when reprocessing and reusing disposable face masks for five times. Therefore, this study may serve as an inspiration for investigating reprocessing of other medical products that may become scarce. Finally, this study advocates that circular design engineering principles should be taken into account when designing medical devices. This will lead to more sustainable products that have a lower carbon footprint and may be manufactured at lower costs.

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A life cycle assessment framework for quantifying the carbon footprint of rural households based on survey data

MethodsX ◽

10.1016/j.mex.2021.101411 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 101411

Author(s):

Yechennan Peng ◽

Liang Emlyn Yang ◽

Jürgen Scheffran

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Survey Data ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Rural Households ◽

Assessment Framework

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Life-Cycle Assessment of Carbon Footprint of Bike-Share and Bus Systems in Campus Transit

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010158 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 158

Author(s):

Sishen Wang ◽

Hao Wang ◽

Pengyu Xie ◽

Xiaodan Chen

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Co2 Emission ◽

Raw Material ◽

Transit System ◽

Two Systems ◽

Bus System ◽

Bike Share

Low-carbon transport system is desired for sustainable cities. The study aims to compare carbon footprint of two transportation modes in campus transit, bus and bike-share systems, using life-cycle assessment (LCA). A case study was conducted for the four-campus (College Ave, Cook/Douglass, Busch, Livingston) transit system at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). The life-cycle of two systems were disaggregated into four stages, namely, raw material acquisition and manufacture, transportation, operation and maintenance, and end-of-life. Three uncertain factors—fossil fuel type, number of bikes provided, and bus ridership—were set as variables for sensitivity analysis. Normalization method was used in two impact categories to analyze and compare environmental impacts. The results show that the majority of CO2 emission and energy consumption comes from the raw material stage (extraction and upstream production) of the bike-share system and the operation stage of the campus bus system. The CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system are 46 and 13 times of that of the proposed bike-share system, respectively. Three uncertain factors can influence the results: (1) biodiesel can significantly reduce CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system; (2) the increased number of bikes increases CO2 emission of the bike-share system; (3) the increase of bus ridership may result in similar impact between two systems. Finally, an alternative hybrid transit system is proposed that uses campus buses to connect four campuses and creates a bike-share system to satisfy travel demands within each campus. The hybrid system reaches the most environmentally friendly state when 70% passenger-miles provided by campus bus and 30% by bike-share system. Further research is needed to consider the uncertainty of biking behavior and travel choice in LCA. Applicable recommendations include increasing ridership of campus buses and building a bike-share in campus to support the current campus bus system. Other strategies such as increasing parking fees and improving biking environment can also be implemented to reduce automobile usage and encourage biking behavior.

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A Review of Bioplastics and Their Adoption in the Circular Economy

Polymers ◽

10.3390/polym13081229 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 1229

Author(s):

Alberto Di Bartolo ◽

Giulia Infurna ◽

Nadka Tzankova Dintcheva

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

European Commission ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Environmental Risks ◽

Plastic Waste ◽

The European Union ◽

Sustainable Society ◽

Net Zero

The European Union is working towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The shift towards a more sustainable society is intertwined with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in the European economy. Emissions generated by plastic production, plastic waste, littering and leakage in nature, insufficient recycling, are some of the issues addressed by the European Commission. Adoption of bioplastics–plastics that are biodegradable, bio-based, or both–is under assessment as one way to decouple society from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. In this work, we aim at reviewing the field of bioplastics, including standards and life cycle assessment studies, and discuss some of the challenges that can be currently identified with the adoption of these materials.

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Environmental Consequences of Closing the Textile Loop—Life Cycle Assessment of a Circular Polyester Jacket

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11072964 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 2964

Author(s):

Gregor Braun ◽

Claudia Som ◽

Mélanie Schmutz ◽

Roland Hischier

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Textile Industry ◽

System Analysis ◽

Action Plan ◽

The European Union ◽

Environmental Consequences ◽

Energy And Material Flows

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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Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052472 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2472

Author(s):

Teodora Stillitano ◽

Emanuele Spada ◽

Nathalie Iofrida ◽

Giacomo Falcone ◽

Anna Irene De Luca

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Social Life ◽

Food Systems ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Point Of View ◽

Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Qualitative Synthesis

This study aims at providing a systematic and critical review on the state of the art of life cycle applications from the circular economy point of view. In particular, the main objective is to understand how researchers adopt life cycle approaches for the measurement of the empirical circular pathways of agri-food systems along with the overall lifespan. To perform the literature review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was considered to conduct a review by qualitative synthesis. Specifically, an evaluation matrix has been set up to gather and synthesize research evidence, by classifying papers according to several integrated criteria. The literature search was carried out employing scientific databases. The findings highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy (CE) strategies. In contrast, only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Global warming potential, eutrophication (for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems), human toxicity, and ecotoxicity results are the most common LCA indicators applied. Only a few articles deal with the CE assessment through specific indicators. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.

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Evaluation and optimization of a circular economy model integrating planting and breeding based on the coupling of emergy analysis and life cycle assessment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-021-15101-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Qingsong Wang ◽

Yujie Zhang ◽

Shu Tian ◽

Xueliang Yuan ◽

Qiao Ma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Emergy Analysis ◽

Economy Model

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Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13073856 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 3856

Author(s):

Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽

Vasja Omahne ◽

Damjan Krajnc

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Social Life ◽

Product Life Cycle ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Social Impacts ◽

Life Cycle Costing ◽

Social Life Cycle Assessment

When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.

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