As a customer or consumer, finding the exact product that matches your vision for sustainability can be challenging. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be a helpful tool to help you get started.
When faced with a life cycle assessment, there are several things you should be aware of.
Start by clarifying what you want to use the calculations for. Is it, for instance:
- One-to-one comparison between two products?
- Insights into reducing the environmental impact by choosing a product in a thinner material?
- Insights into reducing the environmental impact by switching from virgin plastic to recyclable plastic?
- Insights into reducing the environmental impact by switching to another solution, e.g., from disposable to reusable products?
No matter what you need the product for, we recommend that you always choose the product that suits your needs. By doing so, you avoid making the wrong purchases of products that do not solve your task.
Consider:
- What need should my product solve?
- How many products do I need – both now and in the long term?
- How much space do I have to store the product?
- Do I have the necessary accessories for the product to work optimally?
- Do I have the option to dispose of the product appropriately after use?
Form, fit, function
When choosing a product based on a life cycle assessment, you should be aware of several factors.
For a start, you need to compare two products with each other to highlight the impact that different production methods, countries of production, and material choices have on a product's life cycle.
However, you cannot uncritically compare two products. You need to look at the products’ form, fit, and function.
Form
To make a correct comparison, the products must have a comparable shape, size, dimension, mass, weight, and other visual parameters. We also recommend looking at how often the product can be used before it loses significant properties. It is impossible to make a fair comparison if the quantity of one product is calculated in, for example, 100 meters and the other product is calculated in 1000 sheets.
- Example: When comparing two towel sheets, you should look at characteristics such as the number of layers, the type of fold, the size, raw materials, and the quantity/number of products.
Fit
Should the products be included in another product? If the answer is yes, then the prerequisites for the two comparable products should be the same.
- Example: Should the towel sheet be inserted into a dispenser? This requires both of the compared towel sheets to comply with the dispenser measurements. If not, the comparison between the two products will be inaccurate.
Function
To make an accurate comparison, the two compared products must have the exact same function.
- Example: Should the towel sheet be used to dry hands or as wiping paper in an industrial facility? Different products are developed and produced for different purposes. It is, therefore, essential that you use a product as intended.
Methods, modeling, and datasets can vary from company to company. For this reason, we recommend only comparing ABENA's products with other products within ABENA's range.
Concepts
Life cycle calculations can be calculated from two perspectives: Cradle-to-grave and Cradle-to-gate.
ABENA's life cycle calculations are calculated from the Cradle-to-grave perspective, where we calculate all stages in a product's life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to production, distribution, use, and disposal method (source: Knowledge for Policy).
Conversely, only the stages from the extraction of raw materials until the manufacturer releases the product on the market are calculated from the Cradle-to-gate perspective (source: European Environment Agency).
Use in practice
When choosing a product using a life cycle assessment, you should also consider whether the product – or the use of the product – requires additional appliances and resources. There can easily be several practical circumstances, such as a washing machine that must be filled and emptied by an employee, trolleys, containers for waste sorting, etc., which should be considered when choosing one product over another.
The outcome of a life cycle assessment is also affected by how a product is disposed of. Some products can be recycled, while others are sent directly for incineration.
ABENA calculates life cycle assessments using two different disposal methods.
- Recycling includes raw material processing, production, transport, and recycling or composting at the last stage of the product's life cycle.
- Incineration includes processing raw materials, production, transport, and incineration at the last stage of the product life cycle.
Some products can be washed and reused multiple times before being sorted for incineration. If the product is suitable for multiple uses, the number of wash cycles the product has been tested to withstand is included in the life cycle assessment.
