Environmental impact, lead product manufacture

The production of material of a consistent quality is one of the major goals of development work. Quality problems in a product are identified by the constant monitoring and analysis of the output from the plant, using statistical process control techniques [D-4]. Some of these methods have already been mentioned in Section B, 3.4.2. The avoidance of product quality problems results in direct cost benefits and also brings about a reduction in the environmental impact of its manufacture. This is because material does not need to be reworked, recycled or sent for disposal. A reduction in the number of inferior quality batches of material leads to an increase in output from the plant. More material is produced for the same effort, with the added benefit that it can be consistently supplied to the sales warehouse or be used in consuming processes. 

Skanska, one of the world s largest construction companies with 75 000 employees and activities world-wide, are stating that operating for many years under substitution regulation in Sweden has lead them to "...continuously seek less harmful alternatives. This is something that our clients expect from us as a producer of buildings or infrastructure. As we are not experts on the components in our products, we have to go back to our suppliers with the requests that our clients put on us. As manufacturers of building components they will have to go back to their suppliers etc. This is the way we want the market to work in order to reduce the environmental impact."... 

Wastewater comprises liquid waste discharged by households, industries and commercial establishments, and is typically collected through sewage pipes in municipal areas. Wastewater also contains chemicals and pathogens that can lead to serious negative impacts on the quality of the environment as well as human health if it is drained directly into major watershed without treatment [4,5]. The use of wastewater as a feedstock in the production of PHA has been proposed as a relevant approach in the shift from a petrochemical-based chemical industry towards a biobased one in order to decrease its manufacturing cost and environmental impact [6]. 

During the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in use of life-cycle assessment techniques to evaluate the environmental trade-offs associated with manufacturing and purchasing decisions. The philosophy behind life-cycle assessment is that the entire life cycle of a process or producL from acquisition of raw materials to eventual waste disposal, must be considered in evaluating the effects of that process or product on the environment. If only a portion of the life cycle is considered, then decisions about which of two alternatives has lesser adverse environmental impacts may be flawed, as looking at only a portion of the life cycle may result in ignoring serious impacts and lead to comparisons that are not accurate. 

In the past, the health and safety concerns with lead poisoning have focused on lead-based paint and lead in gasoline. However, the increasing quantity of scrap electronic products disposed into landfills has raised the question of the environmental impact of this source of lead. Studies in 1991 by Allenby, et al. [2] examined the potential for replacing lead-based solder and concluded that there were no viable alternatives at that time. They also suggested that the total environmental impact of lead and its alternatives, from mining, through manufacture, use, and end-of-life should be considered. 

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