Life cycle assessment material balance

Life cycle assessment, energy and raw material balances, recycling and reuse Reduction of emissions during the production and the use of wood-based panels... 

Material and energy balances are as well the basis of ecological assessments. These should not only focus on possible achievements concerning reductions of greenhouse gases or primary resource consumptions but also on other environmental impacts too. Life-cycle assessment (LCA, see ISO 14040 and 14044) is the tool to do this. LCA quantifies and evaluates a number of environmental impacts caused by products, production systems or services. Contrary to other concepts, Uke for example, the carbon footprints or CO2 abatement costs LCA provides the possibility to cover ecological issues more comprehensively and differentiated. 

Life cycle assessment (also known as life cycle analysis, eco balance, and cradle-to-grave analysis) is a technique to assess environmental impact associated with all the stages of a product>s life from cradle to grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). LCAs can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns by ... 

The last thing that many consumers likely consider when selecting a product from store shelves may be that the chemical substances in that product will ultimately enter the environment, perhaps by volatilizing to air or washing down the drain even after any solid waste is tossed in the trash for landfilling or incineration, chemicals may yet enter air, water, or soil. But matter is neither created nor destroyed. Short of nuclear reaction, fhe chemicals we use follow this principle of conservation of mass. Life cycle analyses consider the fate and transport of chemicals from the source of raw maferials through use of the product to ultimate disposal. Such assessments fundamentally begin with a mass or material balance. 

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