Full text
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| Author(s): |
Alex Rodrigues Nogueira
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Politécnica (EP/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2012-06-18 |
| Examining board members: |
Gil Anderi da Silva;
Luiz Alexandre Kulay;
Sandro Donnini Mancini
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| Advisor: | Gil Anderi da Silva |
| Abstract | |
Recently, human society has taken actions in order to minimize the environmental impacts associated with meeting their needs. Recycling is an important activity that can contribute to the achievement of this new goal. However, the possible benefits of recycling should be considered systemically, i.e., through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products. On the other hand, LCA method implementation has some unconsolidated aspects. One example is the modeling of product systems end-of-life involving waste recycling, for which there is no consensus in the scientific community regarding the most appropriate approach. In this context, this research aims to consolidate the alternative approaches for modeling wastes recycling in LCA studies. The identified models vary primarily according to three approaches. One of them is based on product system expansion in order to avoid the need for environmental burdens allocation. This approach has the advantage of directly considering the possible benefits of reusing waste. The second approach is based on the allocation of environmental burdens associated with raw materials processing, recycling and final waste disposal between product systems involved. Finally, the last approach considers the attribution of environmental burdens associated with the mentioned processes exclusively the function served by each system. Thus, the system providing a post-consumer product for reuse bears the burdens arising from raw materials processing, while the system that recoveries the post-consumer product is responsible for the loads associated with the recycling as well as eventual final waste disposition. It is noted that this modeling approach favors situations in which a particular system uses a recycled product as raw material, since they enter the product system free of previous environmental burdens. (AU) | |