Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a Tool for Environmental Management

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment, included in company environmental management methods, has particular importance in marketing management. Analysis of dangers to the environment through tools such as the LCA method allows for comparisons of alternative company management strategies. LCA is characterised as a technique for environmental management that enables environmental impact assessment of the product, process, industry, and even the comprehensive economic sector. LCA also influences decisions regarding environmental policy modification, but most importantly, it influences a company's marketing activities. The LCA technique is applied the world over with great effectiveness in studying specific phases of a product's life cycles – from 'birth to death'; however, Poland's experience in this domain constitutes continuously developing research areas. The experience of foreign research centres confirms the possibility of applying LCA techniques in supporting environmental risk assessment of innovative technologies where LCA is used to study the environmental impact of a new generation product, i.e. flocculants from polymer wastes. This article presents the results of a study of the effectiveness of applying a new generation of polyelectrolyte (gained from polystyrene waste) in treating industrial wastewater and the LCA environmental impact assessment, which was carried out using SimaPro software. Based on the analysis of the results of the application of sodium salts of sulfone derivatives of polystyrene in the treatment of mine water, it was found that these products significantly reduced the pollution indicators of mine water from KWK1. Accordingly, they provided the basis for the development of technical-scale technology.