Life Cycle Analysis

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Life cycle analysis

• Assignment: Improve this Powerpoint. – Add Pictures– Check for spelling– Add Facts

• NEW Sources of info- must be recorded

Product Life Cycle

• Products are created, used and then…

• We will look at some common used products to see how we get them, how long we use them and what happens after.

Who owns a cell phone

Where is it produced?

Who produces the product?

Packaging when you purchased it?

Life Span of cell phone?

Durability ( do all the components last?)

A new phone means what for the old one?

“Toss Away” being Tossed

• In Canada and other developing countries we are undergoing a change in philosophy

• No longer is the “toss away” mentality the only idea. (While there remains a number of people and companies who are stuck in that thought process)

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are making the way into many corporate and government plans.

NS Leads the Way

• Nova Scotia has introduced a program to recycle electronics. Atlantic Canada Electronics Stewardship (ACES)

• Electronic waste is now illegal to put in the garbage with other household waste. It must be taken to a drop off site.

• A fee is paid at time of purchase on new electronics to help recover the costs.

Why Not just throw it away?

• “The amount of electronic products discarded globally has skyrocketed recently, with 20-50 million tonnes generated every year. If such a huge figure is hard to imagine, think of it like this - if the estimated amount of e-waste generated every year would be put into containers on a train it would go once around the world!” – Green Peace website

Life of the cell phone

Life span of phone= 18 months (and decreasing)

Estimated 4500 tonnes of electronic product waste is generated in Nova Scotia annually.

Consumer electronics are responsible for 40 percent of the lead in this stream.

70% percent are stockpiled in the house.

Given the number of cell phone users and short lifetimes of cell phones, it is likely that they do a significant impact on the environment.

Life Cycle Analysis of cell phone

Materials Extraction-

The handset consists of:

40 % metals

40 % plastics

20 % ceramics

and trace materials.

Plastics• http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/plastic.html• Petroleum to Plastics• The technological road from oil field to finished plastic product has numerous

fascinating side trips. Here’s the route taken in the petroleum-to-plastics process: • 1. Petroleum is drilled and transported to a refinery. • 2. Crude oil and natural gas are refined into ethane, propane, hundreds of other

petrochemical products and, of course, fuel for your car.• 3. Ethane and propane are "cracked" into ethylene and propylene, using high-

temperature furnaces.• 4. Catalyst is combined with ethylene or propylene in a reactor, resulting in "fluff," a

powdered material (polymer) resembling laundry detergent. • 5. Fluff is combined with additives in a continuous blender.• 6. Polymer is fed to an extruder where it is melted.• 7. Melted plastic is cooled then fed to a pelletizer that cuts the product into small

pellets.• 8. Pellets are shipped to customers. • 9. Customers manufacture plastic products by using processes such as extrusion,

injection molding, blow molding, etc.

Chips

• Circled in yellow above are all the computer chips in the cell phone that require significant processing in their manufacture, about 18 chips.

Chip components are circled in Yellow

Danger

Cell phone circuitry and displays can contain toxic compounds like arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, copper, and lead. The plastic shells of the cell phones have also been treated with brominated flame retardants.

Input and Output to Produce

Input Output

70.5 X 5, or 352.5 pounds of water (200 - 400 pounds are used in an average 5 minute shower)

352.5 pounds of water

3.5 X 5, or 17.5 pounds of energy

Varies according to how energy is generated.

0.16 X 5, or 0.8 pounds of chemicals

0.8 pounds of chemicals, usually in water solution, possibly treated.

Water in China• If present trends are not reversed, the World Bank forecasts that by 2020 there will be

30 million environmental refugees in China due to water stress.• With 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of global water resources, China

meets with a severe challenge. • More than half of China’s 660 cities suffer from water shortages, affecting 160 million

people. • The per capita water volume in China is one fourth of the world average. • 90% of cities’ groundwater and 75% of rivers and lakes are polluted. • As a result of widespread water pollution, 700 million people drink contaminated

water every day. • Waterborne diseases have created a rising number of premature deaths. • Between November 2005 and January 2006, three large-scale incidents occurred,

halting water supply for millions of people and raising awareness of the challenges ahead.

• The government plans to mitigate water pollution by investing in wastewater treatment facilities.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_water_crisis accessed January 1, 2010

Video

• The Secret Life of Cellphones

Coltan, Gorillas and Cellphones

• How is your cell phone killing an endangered species?

• What is coltan?

• How as a consumer can I help prevent it from happening?

• Other effects of

the mining

Sources

• http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/ accessed Jan 1, 2010

• http://www.acestewardship.ca/ accessed Jan 1, 2010

• https://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/waste/ewaste.asp -accessed Jan 1, 2010

• http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/comp-dic/lca-sum/ -accessed Jan 1, 2010

• http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/life-cell.pdf accessed Aug 4, 2012