Abstract
Depletion of abiotic resources is a much disputed impact category in life cycle assessment (LCA). The reason is that the problem can be defined in different ways. Furthermore, within a specified problem definition, many choices can still be made regarding which parameters to include in the characterization model and which data to use. This article gives an overview of the problem definition and the choices that have been made when defining the abiotic depletion potentials (ADPs) for a characterization model for abiotic resource depletion in LCA. Updates of the ADPs since 2002 are also briefly discussed. Finally, some possible new developments of the impact category of abiotic resource depletion are suggested, such as redefining the depletion problem as a dilution problem. This means taking the reserves in the environment and the economy into account in the reserve parameter and using leakage from the economy, instead of extraction rate, as a dilution parameter.
Highlights
From the beginning of the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the depletion of abiotic resources has been one of the impact categories taken into account in the environmental impact assessment.Natural resources are defined as an area of protection by the SETAC WIA (Society of EnvironmentalToxicology and Chemistry Working group on life cycle Impact Assessment) [1] and are part of the LifeCycle Impact Midpoint-Damage Framework developed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (United Nations EnvironmentProgram)/SETAC life cycle initiative [2].abiotic resource depletion is one of the most debated impact categories because there is no scientifically “correct” method to derive characterization factors [3]
There are several reasons for this: (1) abiotic depletion is a problem crossing the economy–environment system boundary, since reserves of resources depend on future technologies for extracting them; (2) there are different ways to define the depletion problem, and all can be justified from different perspectives; (3) there are different ways of quantifying a depletion definition, and none of them can be empirically verified, since they all depend on the assumed availability of, and demand, for resources in the future and on future technologies
The definition of the problem and the choices made to define the characterization model will result in different sets of characterizations
Summary
From the beginning of the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the depletion of abiotic resources has been one of the impact categories taken into account in the environmental impact assessment.Natural resources are defined as an area of protection by the SETAC WIA (Society of EnvironmentalToxicology and Chemistry Working group on life cycle Impact Assessment) [1] and are part of the LifeCycle Impact Midpoint-Damage Framework developed by the UNEP (United Nations EnvironmentProgram)/SETAC life cycle initiative [2].abiotic resource depletion is one of the most debated impact categories because there is no scientifically “correct” method to derive characterization factors [3]. From the beginning of the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the depletion of abiotic resources has been one of the impact categories taken into account in the environmental impact assessment. Natural resources are defined as an area of protection by the SETAC WIA Abiotic resource depletion is one of the most debated impact categories because there is no scientifically “correct” method to derive characterization factors [3]. The debate on abiotic resource depletion and how to evaluate it has recently started again. This is partly because of the ongoing debate in the LCA community; see for example the guidelines of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) and the PEF, in Europe.
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