206 Ecology and Applied Environmental Science
assessment aims at grouping and evaluation of the potential environmental
burdens that have been identified as, for example, climatic change or eutrophication. The impacts are grouped on the basis of equivalence factors,
e.g. potential for global warming or for ozone layer depletion or for eutrophication in a lake. Usually inclusion of different impacts is not obvious;
in that case, corresponding values of a quantitative or qualitative character
should be set according to their relative significance. The various evaluation methodologies used can be linked to goals or costs or be assessed by
a group of experts or people involved with the subject. For the time being,
there is a lack of commonly accepted evaluation methodologies.
Air emissions
Wastewater
Solid waste
Heat
Energy recovery
(waste to energy)
Raw materials
extraction
Materials
recycling
Sorting at
source
Processing
Manufacturing
Packaging
Distribution
Product use
Disposal (burial)
Energy, water, air
Figure 11.1 Life cycle of a product.