Abstract
Material efficiency is a key element of new thinking to address the challenges of reducing impacts on the environment and of resource scarcity, whilst at the same time meeting service and functionality demands on materials. Directly related to material efficiency is the concept of the Circular Economy, which is based on the principle of optimising the utility embodied in materials and products through the life-cycle. Although materials such as steel, on account of high recycling rates at end-of-life, are amongst the most ‘circular’ of manufactured materials, significant opportunities for greater material efficiency exist, which are yet to be widely implemented. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is commonly used to assess the environmental benefits of recovering and recycling materials through the manufacturing supply chain and at end-of-life. Using an example taken from renewable energy generation, this paper explores the correlation between product circularity and the environmental case for strategies designed to improve material efficiency. An LCA-based methodology for accounting for the recovery and reuse of materials from the supply chain and at end-of-life is used as the basis for calculating the carbon footprint benefits of five material efficiency scenarios. The results are compared with a number of proposed material circularity indicators. Two conclusions from this exercise are that (i) LCA methodologies based around end-of-life approaches are well placed for quantifying the environmental benefits of material efficiency and circular economy strategies and (ii) when applying indicators relating to the circularity of materials these should also be supported by LCA-based studies.
Highlights
IntroductionThe increasing demand by society for services and infrastructure (e.g., transport, energy, buildings) and the need to address environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption delivers a tension that is a fundamental challenge of the current time
The increasing demand by society for services and infrastructure and the need to address environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption delivers a tension that is a fundamental challenge of the current time
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been widely used for characterising the environmental benefits of recycling and organisations such as World Steel Association have recommended methods that can be used to evaluate the benefits of recycling steel products. Such approaches provide a useful starting point for evaluating scenarios relating to the circular economy and this paper explores how they can be further developed and applied not just to scenarios relating to recycling and to reuse and extended product life
Summary
The increasing demand by society for services and infrastructure (e.g., transport, energy, buildings) and the need to address environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption delivers a tension that is a fundamental challenge of the current time Concepts such as Material Efficiency and the Circular Economy (CE) aim to address this challenge largely through the principle of delivering the same or greater functionality currently provided by materials, whilst using fewer resources. It is important that material efficiency strategies are evaluated carefully in the environmental dimension, so that informed and optimal decisions about product design, service delivery and new business models can be made Such environmental evaluations can be well made using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), or at least by following the underlying principles of life cycle thinking
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