Cradle to grave

E. L. Gershey, R. C. Kleia, E. Party, and A. Wilkerson, Eow-Eevel Radioactive Waste From Cradle to Grave, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1990. 

The key element of life-cycle design is Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is generally envisioned as a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with the cradle-to-grave life cycle of a produc t, process, or ac tivity. A produc t s life cycle can be roughly described in terms of the following stages ... 

Liability reduction. Facilities are responsible for their wastes from cradle-to-grave. By eliminating or reducing waste generation, future liabilities can also be decreased. Additionally, the need for expensive pollution liability insurance requirements may be abated. 

Section 34 of EPA 90 imposes a cradle to grave philosophy for waste management. This places a duty of care upon anyone who has control of controlled waste, i.e. importers, producers. 

One of the recognized barriers to the successful application of inherently safer technology is the lack of appreciation of the benefits that can be derived from viewing a process broadly rather than narrowly. Employing a cradle-to-grave and a feed-end-to-product-end view will lead to the development of processes which are as inherently safe as possible. Several examples of myopic design are ... 

Most nonexempt nonacute hazardous waste generated on location is considered a small quantity. In this case, the waste may remain on location for 90 days. At that time, a Department of Transportation licensed motor carrier must transfer the waste to a EPA certified TSDF for disposal. Appropriate documentation and packaging must be conformed to. The operator continues to be liable for the waste as denoted by the cradle to grave concept [233],... 

All useful methods attempt to capture and describe all of the impacts during the entire life of the product or service from cradle to grave . This is the basis of the cluster of measurement tools known collectively as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). 

A life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as life cycle analysis, of a product or process begins with an inventory of the energy and environmental flows associated with a product from "cradle to grave" and provides information on the raw materials used from the environment, energy resources consumed, and air, water, and solid waste emissions generated. GHGs and other wastes, sinks, and emissions may then be assessed (Sheehan et ah, 1998). The net GHG emissions calculated from an LCA are usually reported per imit of product or as the carbon footprint. 

If both common law and statutory obligations incurred by a manufacturer of new chemicals are considered, there is a cradle to grave coverage with respect to health hazards, for obligations now arise with the birth of the chemical in the research laboratory and continue through its life in mass production, packaging, transportation, on to its final conversion into a new substance or final distribution or dissipation by the ultimate user. 

Since 1980, under RCRA Subtitle C, U.S. EPA has developed a comprehensive program to ensure that hazardous waste is managed safely from the moment it is generated while it is transported, treated, or stored until the moment it is finally disposed (Figure 12.1). This cradle-to-grave management system establishes requirements for each of the following ... 

FIGURE 12.1 RCRA s cradle-to-grave hazardous waste management system. (Adapted from U.S. EPA, RCRA Orientation Manual, www.epa.gov/waste/inforesources/pubs/orientat/roml.pdf.)... 

Under RCRA, hazardous waste generators are the first link in the cradle-to-grave hazardous waste management system. All generators must determine whether their waste is hazardous and must... 

This is a clear example of a cradle-to-grave study, so GHG fluxes comprise also disposal of the packaging. The consumption phase is not considered in the study. The functional unit is 1 kg of truffle sauce. 

Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to assess impacts of cradle-to-grave chains of products/services. In the Riskcycle framework, the focus is on additives. Additives are usually minor constituents of products, but depending on their specific properties they can be important in the total scope of impacts of such products. In the LCA literature, additives are hardly visible. Most case studies of products containing additives do not mention them. The reasons for this are unclear, but are at least partly due to the fact that information on additives is not included in standard LCA databases. This is true for both life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) databases. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude whether or not additives indeed are important contributors to environmental impacts over the life cycle. 

LCA is a methodology out of the Industrial Ecology toolbox. It is designed to specify and compare the environmental impacts of cradle-to-grave chains of products or services. It is standardized by ISO [3] and has the following methodological steps ... 

Pihkola H, Nors M, Kujanpaa, Helin T, Kariniemi M, Pajula T, Dahlbo H, Koskela S (2010) Carbon footprint and environmental impacts of print products from cradle to grave. Results from the LEADER project (Part 1). Espoo 2010. Vtt Tiedotteita - Research Notes 2560... 

This study deals with life cycle assessment of emissions related to the use of additives in a plastic application. This means that environmental impacts are estimated for the total of emissions, not restricted to toxic effects and/or one substance (like DEHP). Furthermore emissions relate to the cradle-to-grave chain of the additive application in cushion vinyl floor covering. 

---