| 1. |
- Laurenti, Rafael, et al.
(författare)
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Analyzing the relationship between product waste footprints and environmental damage - A life cycle analysis of 1,400+products
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 859
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major problem for the circular economy is monitoring improvements in environmental sustainability. Measuring how much waste reduction efforts contribute to the decrease of environmental impact is difficult, because knowledge on whether life cycle waste amounts correlate with environmental damage is limited. In this article, product waste footprints are used to explore structural similarities and differences in associations with environmental damage. Using the waste flows linked to the production system of 1487 reference products from the Ecoinvent database, we found significant regression equations with R2 of 0.75-0.89 between product waste footprints and potential impact on ecosystem diversity, human health and resource availability using log-transformed variables. For each 1 % increase in solid waste, potential impact on the environment increased by 0.75-0.84 %. This strong association between preconsumer waste and environmental damage is particularly important for advocating for circular economy efforts at the point of consumption, where life cycle waste is invisible to consumers.
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| 2. |
- Laurenti, Rafael, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring the Environmental Footprint of Leather Processing Technologies
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 1088-1980 .- 1530-9290. ; 21:5, s. 1180-1187
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The selection of materials and manufacturing processes often determines most of the environmental impact that a product will have during its life cycle. In directing consumption toward products with the least impact on the environment, measuring and comparing material alternatives with site-specific data is a fundamental prerequisite. Within the apparel and footwear industry, some famous brands have recently been basing their advertising on the claim that vegetable-tanned leather is more environmentally friendly than chromiumtanned leather. However, there is a lack of scientific research assessing and comparing vegetable-and chromium-tanned leather in a wider context than the toxicity of chromium. To fill this gap, this study measured and compared the carbon, water, and energy footprint of vegetable and chromium leather processing technology and intermediate processing stages in 12 selected tanneries in seven different countries worldwide. Each tannery proved to be very individual, and therefore attempting to perform this type of analysis without simply producing meaningless generalities is a challenge for companies, researchers, and regulators. The variability in results demonstrates that secondary data for the tanning phase should be utilized with caution in a decision-making context. The use of primary data would be advisable for life cycle assessment studies of leather goods. No significant differences were found in the footprint of vegetable and chromium leather processes, but these are only indicative findings and need confirmation in further studies. An important area needing investigation is then how a fair comparison can be made between renewable natural materials and nonrenewable materials used in both leather-processing technologies.
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| 3. |
- Lavers Westin, Alexandra, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to identify environmental hotspots of urban consumption
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 226, s. 526-539
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the global environmental impacts of local consumption is an area of growing interest among policymakers and consumers. By knowing what products comprise urban consumption “hotspots,” municipalities and consumers alike could take deliberate actions to target and discourage consumption of high-impact products. In this paper, a new method for identifying environmental hotspots of consumption is presented. The main methodological advances are the following: i) material flow analysis of urban areas and life cycle assessment are combined; ii) a 16-year time-series of urban consumption data is used for selection of the most suitable representative products and for trend analysis; iii) representative products are selected systematically from consumption data of 1000 product types; iv) representative products are scaled up to represent consumption of the product groups; v) hotspots are identified by simultaneously evaluating six environmental impacts - acidification, climate change, eutrophication (marine and freshwater), photochemical ozone formation, and resource use; vi) for the case study, hotspots are connected to the city's profiles. The method was applied to the Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo and to Sweden in total. Electronics is a hotspot for all the studied areas and all the studied impacts and should be a prioritized product group for action. Fuel is a hotspot shared by all the areas while vehicles is a hotspot in Gothenburg. Meat is a nationwide hotspot, but not for the cities investigated. Gothenburg and Stockholm could collaborate to find effective measures for their common hotspot machinery. Thus, the method can be used to identify hotspots and find which product types could be part of national versus local programs.
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| 4. |
- Sinha, Rajib, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Experimenting on closing the metal flow loop in the global mobile phone product system : a system dynamics modeling approach
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), well known as e-waste, is one of the fastest growing waste flows worldwide with increasing complexity in production through distribution to end of life (EoL). In this waste stream, a high number of mobile phones makes e-waste more compelling to examine the whole life of the specific product. In addition, having an interest in e-wastes for informal recycling in developing countries (DC), industrialized countries (IC) export e-wastes to developing countries. The emerging economies of reuse, refurbish and export of used mobile phones not only make the EoL complex, but also make the systems more challenging to sustainability. Since industrial ecology (IE) advocates resource efficiency with closed loop systems, we adapted a system dynamics modeling approach to investigate the dominance paths and driving forces for closing the metal flow loop through the concept of industrial symbiosis and eco-cycle modeling. This study finds higher efficiency for closing the loop in collection systems of used phones, mobile phone use time, and informal recycling in developing countries. By analyzing the dominant parameters, an eco-cycle model is proposed which could enhance a closed loop system by decreasing pressures on non-renewable resources. Improved policy supports accompanying consumer and corporate awareness with responsibility could create a circular consumption in the global mobile phone product system.
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| 5. |
- Hysa, Eglantina, et al.
(författare)
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Circular Economy Innovation and Environmental Sustainability Impact on Economic Growth : An Integrated Model for Sustainable Development
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 12:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the link between selected indicators of a circular economy, including essential components of environmental and economic growth. Developed economies are continuously innovating to promote growth and giving governmental support to the producers to move from linear economies to circular ones. Hence, waste materials in industrial systems are recycled or re-used, improving the efficiency of using finite resources with the no-waste approach. The aim of this paper is the following: (1) to identify the main components of a circular economy, which are also supportive of sustainability and development; (2) to check the impact of these variables in the economic growth of European Union countries; (3) to find out if the three components of sustainable development adopted to circular economy (CE) indicators (environmental-social-economic) are significant to economic growth. We used a fixed effect panel data analysis to identify the circular economy's impact on the economic growth of European countries. Additionally, to support the results of the regression analysis, we employed a second method-generalized methods of moments-computing the Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data estimation method. The model included five independent variables, such as environmental tax rate, a recycling rate of waste, private investment and jobs in a circular economy, patents related to recycling, and trade of recyclable raw materials. The identification of each variable was made based on a deep search through literature. The results of both econometric models showed a strong and positive correlation between a circular economy to economic growth, highlighting the crucial role of sustainability, innovation, and investment in no-waste initiatives to promote wealth.
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| 6. |
- Laurenti, Rafael, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Calculating the pre-consumer waste footprint : a screening study of 10 selected products
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Knowledge aboutthe total waste generated by the production of consumer goods canhelpraise awareness among policy-makers, producers and consumers of thebenefits of closing loops in a future circular economy and avoiding unnecessary production and production steps and associated generation of large amounts of waste.In strict life cycle assessment (LCA) practice, information on waste outputs fromintermediate industrial processes of material and energy transformation is only translatedinto and declared aspotential environmental impacts, whichare oftennot even shown in the final results. In this study, a procedure to extract available intermediate data and perform a systematic pre-consumer waste footprint analysiswas developed. The pre-consumer waste footprint concept was tested to analyse 10 generic products, whichprovided some interesting results for the different product categories and identifieda number of challenges that need to be resolvedin development of the waste footprint concept. These challenges include standardiseddata declaration on waste in LCA,with a separationintowaste categories illustratingthe implicit environmental and scale of significance of waste types and quantities(e.g. hazardous waste,inertwaste, waste for recycling/incineration)and establishment ofa common definitionof waste throughoutsectors and nations.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Laurenti, Rafael, et al.
(författare)
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Group Model-Building to identify potential sources of environmental impacts outside the scope of LCA studies
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 72, s. 96-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Specific methodologies that consider a more comprehensive/diverse set of parameters must be explored by the LCA community. This study utilises the Group Model-Building (GMB) method to identify, and Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) technique to make explicit, variables which are not typically considered in LCA studies, but may have significant influence upon environmental impacts through cause-effect links and feedback loops in product systems. A literature review on LCAs concerning household washing machines and conventional passenger cars product systems is performed to investigate what are the commonly used functional unit, life cycle stages and system boundaries. Two parallel GMB sessions were organised to elicit relevant variables and relations in the product systems and build in a first version of CLDs. Individual interviews with the participants were undertaken to refine and validate the system models. Final versions of the system models were built. GMB and CLD can serve as a basis for (i) delimitating appropriated system boundaries for LCA and (ii) identifying variables/areas to be included in sensitivity and scenario analysis. Sensitivity and scenario analysis examine the influence that those variables/areas have on the environmental impacts of the product and describe both different contexts and profiles of users. GMB and CLD have the potential to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative variables, for more robust understanding of the causes and mechanisms of environmental impacts and improving conclusions and recommendations in LCA.
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| 10. |
- Laurenti, Rafael, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
-
Measuring the environmental footprint of leather processing technologies
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The selection of materials and manufacturing processes determines most of the environmental impact that a product will have during its life cycle. In directing consumption towards products with the least impact on the environment, measuring and comparing material alternatives with site-specific data is a fundamental prerequisite. Within the apparel and footwear industry, some famous brands have recently been basing their advertising on the claim that vegetable-tanned leather is more environmentally friendlythan chromium-tanned leather. However, there is a lack of scientific research assessing and comparing vegetable-and chromium-tanned leather in a wider context than the toxicity of chromium. To fill this gap, this study measured and compared the carbon, water and energy footprint of vegetable and chromium leather processing technology and intermediate processing stages in 12 selected tanneries in seven different countries world-wide. Each tannery proved to be very individual and therefore attempting to perform this type of analysis without simply producing meaningless generalities is a challenge for companies, researchers and regulators. The variability in results demonstrates that secondary data for the tanning phase should be utilizedwith caution in a decision-making context. The use of primary data would be advisable for life cycle assessment(LCA) studies of leather goods. No significant differences were found in the footprint of vegetable and chromium leather processes, but these are only indicative findings and need confirmation in further studies. An important area needing investigation is then how a fair comparison can be made between renewable natural materials and non-renewable materials used in both leather processing technologies.
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