A critical comparison of ten disposable cup LCAs
| Autor: | Josepha Potting, E. J. M. Van der Harst |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Engineering
life-cycle assessment Geography Planning and Development Management Monitoring Policy and Law system biodegradation Statistics Operations management uncertainty Life-cycle assessment Paperboard Disposable cup WIMEK Ecology business.industry emissions environmental impacts Cup material Environmental Systems Analysis visual_art Milieusysteemanalyse visual_art.visual_art_medium sense organs business Global-warming potential management |
| Zdroj: | Environmental Impact Assessment Review 43 (2013) Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 43, 86-96 |
| ISSN: | 0195-9255 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.eiar.2013.06.006 |
| Popis: | Disposable cups can be made from conventional petro-plastics, bioplastics, or paperboard (coated with petro-plastics or bioplastics). This study compared ten life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of disposable cups with the aim to evaluate the robustness of their results. The selected studies have only one impact category in common, namely climate change with global warming potential (GWP) as its category indicator. Quantitative GWP results of the studies were closer examined. GWPs within and across each study show none of the cup materials to be consistently better than the others. Comparison of the absolute GWPs (after correction for the cup volume) also shows no consistent better or worse cup material. An evaluation of the methodological choices and the data sets used in the studies revealed their influence on the GWP. The differences in GWP can be attributed to a multitude of factors, i.e., cup material and weight, production processes, waste processes, allocation options, and data used. These factors basically represent different types of uncertainty. Sensitivity and scenario analyses provided only the influence of one factor at once. A systematic and simultaneous use of sensitivity and scenario analyses could, in a next research, result in more robust outcomes. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full Text from ScienceDirect