Recycling and Landfill
The evaluation of a product concerning sustainability requires the consideration of the entire life cycle of the product, beginning at the stage of production through use-phase to the End-of-Life (EoL).
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Conceivable options for the End-of-Life of a product are, for example material recycling, raw material recycling, energy recovery, and disposal. The reuse of a product for the same or another application also belongs to the options of end-of-life.
Beyond the questions of recycling and landfill, the End-of-Life phase has more and more influence on the design of the product in the course of legislations and regulations on End-of-Life (e.g. “Waste Act and European Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles”, WEEE – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, etc.). The general aim is to integrate and evaluate potential environmental impacts of the End-of-Life phase already in the early development stage of the product. This is realised and implemented by using the method of the Design for Environment (DfE) and Ecodesign. For this application the GaBi DfX tool, a product of the GaBi family, is the ideal support and was developed specially for this purpose.
Practical application
The instrument of Life Cycle Engineering supports industries in the decision making process and in finding solutions for questions concerning the End-of-Life of a product or product systems. Possible application fields are listed in the following:
- Comparison of processes and technologies in the End-of-Life stage
- Optimisation of resource input in production
- Fulfilment of product responsibility
- Realisation of the tomorrow’s vision of product requirements
- Fulfilment of recycling quota of a product
- Efficient identification of optimisation potential for a product
- Identification of the contribution for the End-of-Life stage to the entire life cycle regarding economic, environmental and social aspects.
Our competences
Due to many years of experience the Department Life Cycle Engineering can provide optimal recycling and landfill options for specific product oriented and individual applications. Hence we support companies and customers to develop sustainable products in an efficient way. Furthermore the following aspects can be determined:
- Methodological question considering recycling (System boundary expansion, Cut-off approach, Closed-loop, Value-corrected substitution approach, Open-loop, Recycling potential, Cascade model, Stock flow approach, etc.)
- Waste-to-energy (Waste incineration, pyrolisis)
- Landfill.
