Life cycle thinking and Life Cycle Assessment LCA

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Life cycle thinking and Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA)

• Tomas Rydberg
• Institute of Environment Sustainability, Soil
  Waste Unit
• http//ies.jrc.cec.eu.int

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Life cycle thinking and Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA)...

• consider the upstream as well as the downstream
  resource, environmental and human health
  advantages and disadvantages of one or more
  options.

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Content

• Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment in
  EU Policies and Activities
• Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment -
  Concepts and Methods

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Life Cycle Thinking and Policy Relationship (1)

• Important strategy and policy examples
• Strategy for prevention and recycling of waste
• Strategy for sustainable use of natural resources
  
• Integrated Product Policy Communication (building
  on life cycle thinking)
• Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive
  (2001/42/EC) plans/programs
• Environmental Impact Assessment Directive
  (1997/11/EC) projects
• Impact Assessment Communication (COM(2002) 276)
  major EU initiatives

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Life Cycle Thinking and Policy Relationship (2)

• Specific Waste Policy examples
• WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) and ELV Directive
  (2000/53/EC) Extended producer responsibility /
  life cycle thinking (?)
• Packaging Waste Directive (revision of
  1994/62/EC) life cycle based C/B analysis
• Sewage Sludge Directive (revision of
  1986/278/EEC)
• Biowaste/Compost Several LCA based studies
• Other Policy examples
• Eco-design requirements for energy using products
  Directive (COM(2003) 453)
• Chemicals Policy/REACH (COM(2003) 644) Role in
  regulatory risk management (?)

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Content

• Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment in
  EU Policies and Activities
• Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment -
  Concepts and Methods

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The Life Cycle Concept
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Life Cycle Thinking and LCA of waste
management(simplified)

• Waste / material flows and composition
• System definition Direct and indirect Processes
  and Transports contributing to the management of
  the waste / material flows
• Resource, environmental and human health impacts
  of the system
• Inputs and outputs (Life Cycle Inventory, LCI)
• Impacts (Life Cycle Impact Assessment, LCIA)

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Life Cycle Assessment Phases- based on ISO 14040
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Main issues in LCA

• The context of the study
• What decision is to be informed by the study ?
• What is the scale of the different options ?
• Environmental impacts of concern
• What impacts are of concern - What impacts are
  not important ?
• How important is one impact compared to another ?
  
• The design of the scenarios and technical system
  models
• Accounting model or Consequence model ?
• Marginal changes or Large-scale changes
  (affecting infrastructure) ?
• Allocation (Distribution of impacts in processes
  providing several functions) ?
• Data for processes
• Specific, Average, Marginal, Typical, Future ?
• Availability ?

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Main issues -The context of the study
What is the environmentally best option for waste
management? - one question, three different
situations as example

• The Individual person
• choice between throwing in recycling bin or in
  mixed waste bin
• the infrastructure is not affected
• The Municipality
• choice to design waste management system
• waste management strategies
• invest in composting, anaerobic digestion and/or
  incineration facilities
• National Plans, EU level Policies
• strategies and plans
• interaction with energy systems, material supply
  systems etc.

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Main issues in LCA

• The context of the study
• What decision is to be informed by the study ?
• What is the scale of the different options ?
• Environmental impacts of concern
• What impacts are of concern - What impacts are
  not important ?
• How important is one impact compared to another ?
  
• The design of the scenarios and technical system
  models
• Accounting model or Consequence model ?
• Marginal changes or Large-scale changes
  (affecting infrastructure) ?
• Allocation (Distribution of impacts in processes
  providing several functions) ?
• Data for processes
• Specific, Average, Marginal, Typical, Future ?
• Availability ?

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The cause/effect - relations
Processes ? Emissions Raw Mat.
Extr. ? Environmental Distribution
(Ped) ? Physical/chemichal Transformation ? Enviro
nmental Concentration (Pec) ? Exposure Of/ Uptake
Into Organisms ? Metabolisation/excretion/accumula
tion ? Effects on Organs/receptors ? Effects on
Individuals "Fitness" ? Effects on
Populations ? Effects on Ecosystem Structure and
Function
1st ordereffects
2nd ordereffects
3rd ordereffects
n ordereffects
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LCIA model example CO2 impacts
Source Steen, 1999
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LC Impact assessment
Inventory parameters
Midpoint effects
Classification / characterisation
SO2NOxHCletc.NOx NH3 Petc. CO2COCH4N2O
etc.
Acidification
Eutrophication
Global warming
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Impacts of concern - Effects often considered in
LCA
Reasonable consensus exists
Several different modeling approaches exist, if
at all
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Which impacts are more important ?
Energy use
Global Warming
Acidification
Photo-ox form
Source Johnson, LCA of Paint systems for Trucks,
Volvo TD, 1998
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LC Impact assessment
Inventory parameters
Midpoint effects
Classification / characterisation
SO2NOxHCletc.NOx NH3 Petc. CO2COCH4N2O
etc.
Acidification
Eutrophication
Global warming
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Approaches to weighting

• Expert panels
• Consensus process / voting etc.
• For the given study / given circumstances
• Relating to environmental standards
• National political targets
• Ecological targets / Acceptable damage levels
• Monetisation
• Costs to society for damages caused
• Willingness to pay / Costs to society for
  avoiding damages

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Impact weights - different methods
Importance relative to CO2
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LC Impact assessmentcharacteristic elements of
some LCIA methodologies
1 The original geographic scope of the listed
methods. Midpoint methods (Eco-indicator-95,
Eco-scarcity, EDIP), applying distance to target
weighting, have been developed in several
countries and regions.
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Themes included in selected mid-point methods
1. In CML and EDIP, impacts related to
Electricity use ( production) are integrated in
other themes. In ET, with the Swedish scope, it
was convenient to relate electricity use to the
political target relating to river conservation
and nuclear power phaseout. CML - The
Netherlands, 1992 EDIP - Denmark, 1997 ET -
Sweden, 1994
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Main issues in LCA

• The context of the study
• What decision is to be informed by the study ?
• What is the scale of the different options ?
• Environmental impacts of concern
• What impacts are of concern - What impacts are
  not important ?
• How important is one impact compared to another ?
  
• The design of the scenarios and technical system
  models
• Accounting model or Consequence model ?
• Marginal changes or Large-scale changes
  (affecting infrastructure) ?
• Allocation (Distribution of impacts in processes
  providing several functions) ?
• Data for processes
• Specific, Average, Marginal, Typical, Future ?
• Availability ?

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Design of ScenariosCompared alternatives of
waste treatment
Used material
?
Other
Other
Recycling
Energy recovery
material
Energy source
New products
Energy
Landfill
What to substitute? - other waste - average
district heat/electricity - best case oil fuel -
worst case nothing
What to substitute? - base case other recycled
material - best case virgin mtrl - worst case
nothing
Method issues - time scale - leachate rate
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Allocation - multi-input processes

• Mass allocation
• Economic allocation
• Other if relevant (e.g. energy)
• System expansion

Several approaches possible
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The influence of indirect impacts(indicative)
Base Case (Incineration)
High Mtrl Recycling
Swedish Case, Based on Ljunggren Söderman, RCR
(2003)
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The influence of indirect impacts (2)
(indicative)
Swedish Case, Based on Ljunggren Söderman, RCR
(2003)
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The influence of indirect impacts (3) (indicative)
Swedish Case, Based on Ljunggren Söderman, RCR
(2003)
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Main issues in LCA

• The context of the study
• What decision is to be informed by the study ?
• What is the scale of the different options ?
• Environmental impacts of concern
• What impacts are of concern - What impacts are
  not important ?
• How important is one impact compared to another ?
  
• The design of the scenarios and technical system
  models
• Accounting model or Consequence model ?
• Marginal changes or Large-scale changes
  (affecting infrastructure) ?
• Allocation (Distribution of impacts in processes
  providing several functions) ?
• Data for processes
• Specific, Average, Marginal, Typical, Future ?
• Availability ?

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Process the building block
Process
Inputs Outputs related to unit function
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Indicative LCI data needs in different
applications
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LCI data sources

• Industry sector data
• APME (Polymers)
• EAA (Aluminium)
• FEFCO (Corrugated Board)
• IISI (Iron and Steel)
• And others...
• Software packages
• gt20 commercial, gt10 non-comm LCA/DfE

• National etc. data
• GEMIS (D)
• Eco-invent (CH)
• UMIP (DK)
• IVAM (NL)
• (S), (I), (UK) ...
• Often unique system definitions/boundaries
• e.g. with/without electricity production

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Towards European reference methodology and data

• Projects
• FP5 and FP6 Eclipse, LCA-IWM, etc.
• Life-Environment - Dantes, Intend, etc.
• Misc - eContent eLCA JRC/Eucar/Concawe
  Well-to-Wheel, etc
• Methodology
• IPP Handbook for Best Practice in LCA use and
  application
• Workshops towards LCIA Reference Methods
• Data
• Pilot EU Database at JRC Website with directory
  of data bases
• Coordination of National DB / European LC Data
  Exchange format (Cascade, COST 530WG3)

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LCA in EC Funded Projects(non-exhaustive list)
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Life cycle thinking and Life Cycle Assessment...

• can help to avoid solving one problem while
  creating another.
• can help reduce the quantities of waste,
  associated environmental and health impacts, and
  the indirect costs associated with these impacts
  that are borne by society.
• can be a support in, but not a replacement for,
  decision making

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Thank you !

• Further info
• JRC home pages http//www.jrc.cec.eu.int
• Europa web site http//europa.eu.int
• tomas.rydberg_at_jrc.it