Lauran van Oers

Dematerialization: Not Just a Matter of Weight

This article contains the results of a study performed to support the Dutch environmental policy of dematerialization. The aim of the study was to develop and apply a methodology to identify the materials that contribute most to the environmental problems in the Netherlands. The developed methodology combines aspects of material flow accounting (MFA) and life‐cycle assessment (LCA) and aims at adding a set of environmental weights to the flows of the materials. The methodology was applied to a number of materials. For these materials, impacts per kilogram were extracted from a standard LCA database in combination with standard LCA software. These impacts per kilogram are then multiplied with the yearly throughput of each material in the Netherlands to obtain an indication of the environmental impacts associated with each material. This article contains a discussion of dematerialization as background for the research, a description of the methodology followed by the results of its application, and a discussion of the comparison of impact‐based versus mass‐based indicators. Materials vary many orders of magnitude in their impacts per unit mass. In general, the impact per unit of mass of bulk materials is lower than that of materials used in small quantities. This implies that the variation in orders of magnitude of impact multiplied by mass is much less than either mass or impact per kilogram separately. High‐priority materials based on impact multiplied by mass are either small‐quantity materials with very high impacts per kilogram (such as heavy metals) or large‐quantity materials with not‐so‐low impacts per kilogram (such as materials from agriculture and plastics).

Substance flows through the economy and environment of a region : Part II: Modelling.

In the tradition of the study of materials flows through society, the Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) method and its software tool SFINX are presented. SFA aims at providing the relevant information for a country’s overall management strategy regarding single substances or coherent groups of substances. Three modelling techniques and their possibilities and limitations are discussed: Bookkeeping, static modelling, and dynamic modelling. The computer program SFINX can be used for varoius purposes: (1) to obtain an overview of stocks and flows of a substance in, out and through a nation’s economy and environment for a specific year, (2) to trace the origins of specific pollution problems, and (3) to estimate the effectiveness of certain abatement measures. Each application has its own requirements with regard to data and modelling.

Substance flows through the economy and environment of a region: Part I: Systems definition

In the tradition of the study of materials flows through society, the Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) method is presented. SFA aims at providing the relevant information for a country’s overall management strategy regarding single substances or coherent groups of substances. This article is dedicated to the presentation of a threestep general framework for SFA-type studies, and elaborates on its first step the systems definition. Attention is given to the definition of the external and internal system boundaries, the categorization of the system’s elements, aspects of materials choice, time, and space, and how these depend on the aim of the conducted study. Moreover, a broader discussion is started on the need for standardization of materials flow studies in general.

Weighting environmental effects: Analytic survey with operational evaluation methods and a meta-method

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to supply an open method for weighting different environmental impacts, open to basically different evaluation approaches and open to easy revisions. From the partial, diverse and conflicting weighing methods available, a most consistent and flexible meta-method is constructed, allowing for a transparent discussion on weighting.MethodsThe methods incorporated are as general as possible, each single one being as pure as possible. We surveyed encompassing operational methods for evaluation, applicable in LCA and in larger systems like countries. They differ in terms of modelling, as to midpoint or as to endpoint; as to evaluation set-up, in terms of collective preferences or individual preferences; and as to being either revealed or stated. The first is midpoint modelling with collectively stated preferences, with operational weighting schemes from Dutch and US government applications. Second is the LCA-type endpoint approach using individual stated preferences, with public examples from Japan and the Netherlands. The third is the integrated modelling approach by economists.ResultsAll methods are internally inconsistent, as in terms of treatment of place and time, and they are incomplete, lacking environmental interventions and effect routes. We repaired only incompleteness, by methods transfer. Finally, we combined the three groups of methods into a meta-weighting method, aligned to the ILCD Handbook requirements for impact assessment. Application to time series data on EU-27 consumption shows how the EU developed in terms of overall environmental decoupling.ConclusionsThe disparate methods available all can be improved substantially. For now, a user adjustable meta-method is the best option, allowing for public discussion. A flexible regularly updated spreadsheet is supplied with the article.

Using SFA indicators to support environmental policy

In order to improve the link from Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) studies to environmental policy, a translation is made from the SFA overview of flows and stocks into a limited set of indicators. This set is designed to evaluate a region’s substance regime with regard to environmental quality and sustainable development, including problem shifting in time and space.

6th SETAC-Europe Meeting: LCA - Selected Papers uses

Most former methods for the impact assessment of toxic releases in LCA gave a relative yardstick for the potential toxic effect of a substance, with no allowance being made for intermedia transport and degradation. These factors may be of major influence on the degree of (eco)toxic effects to be expected. As part of its work on substance policy, RIVM has developed a computer model calledUniform System for the Evaluation of Substances (USES) to assess, as realistically as possible, the degree to which the no-effect level is transgressed in practice. This model makes allowances for the fate of substances in the environment.An important offspring of the project is not only that substance assessment has been linked to the LCA method, but also that it shows LCA users how they can establish the LCA equivalency factors for the (eco)toxicity of “unknown” substances by themselves, and how they can recalculate the equivalency factors that were reported from the project. This last point is particularly of interest because the new list of equivalency factors suffers from serious uncertainties due to data gaps.Lastly, some future perspectives as to further modelling activities is discussed, in particular with respect to a generic fate model for all emission-related impact types.

Substance flows through the economy and environment of a region : Part I: Systems definition; Part II: Modelling.

In the tradition of the study of materials flows through society, the Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) method and its software tool SFINX are presented. SFA aims at providing the relevant information for a country’s overall management strategy regarding single substances or coherent groups of substances. Three modelling techniques and their possibilities and limitations are discussed: Bookkeeping, static modelling, and dynamic modelling. The computer program SFINX can be used for varoius purposes: (1) to obtain an overview of stocks and flows of a substance in, out and through a nation’s economy and environment for a specific year, (2) to trace the origins of specific pollution problems, and (3) to estimate the effectiveness of certain abatement measures. Each application has its own requirements with regard to data and modelling.

Long-Term Prospects for the Environmental Profile of Advanced Sugar Cane Ethanol

This work assessed the environmental impacts of the production and use of 1 MJ of hydrous ethanol (E100) in Brazil in prospective scenarios (2020-2030), considering the deployment of technologies currently under development and better agricultural practices. The life cycle assessment technique was employed using the CML method for the life cycle impact assessment and the Monte Carlo method for the uncertainty analysis. Abiotic depletion, global warming, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidation, acidification, and eutrophication were the environmental impacts categories analyzed. Results indicate that the proposed improvements (especially no-til farming-scenarios s2 and s4) would lead to environmental benefits in prospective scenarios compared to the current ethanol production (scenario s0). Combined first and second generation ethanol production (scenarios s3 and s4) would require less agricultural land but would not perform better than the projected first generation ethanol, although the uncertainties are relatively high. The best use of 1 ha of sugar cane was also assessed, considering the displacement of the conventional products by ethanol and electricity. No-til practices combined with the production of first generation ethanol and electricity (scenario s2) would lead to the largest mitigation effects for global warming and abiotic depletion. For the remaining categories, emissions would not be mitigated with the utilization of the sugar cane products. However, this conclusion is sensitive to the displaced electricity sources.

Additives in the Plastics Industry

To obtain a picture of environmental and health impacts related to plastics additives, data are required with respect to the production and use of plastics and of their additives, to emissions of additives in all life cycle stages, and to the impacts resulting from those emissions. Statistics on plastics production, trade, and sales are available. Statistical data on plastics waste are scarce – waste trade data are available but most probably do not cover all relevant flows, plastics waste generation data are available only for the EU, and plastics waste treatment data are mostly absent. For the production and use of additives, reports from market analysts provide relevant and usable information. With regard to emissions to the environment, Life Cycle Inventory data are available for plastics production, but these do not include additives. Additive production data are scarce. It is, therefore, not possible to obtain a picture of plastics-related emissions of additives to the environment. For the use and waste treatment processes, LCI data with relevance for plastics additives are not available at all. Life Cycle Impact Assessment data are available for a number of additives, and could be supplied relatively easily for others. The most important data gaps, therefore, occur in the emissions data and in the data related to waste generation and waste treatment.

Deriving European Tantalum Flows Using Trade and Production Statistics

Even though tantalum has a high economic importance and is associated with armed conflict, the use of tantalum throughout the supply chain of importing economies is not well understood. This article adds to existing qualitative descriptions of the tantalum supply chain by performing a quantified substance flow analysis (SFA) of tantalum for Europe in the year 2007. The exercise is meant to show how readily available statistical information could be used along with simple and transparent assumptions on product composition and allocation, to yield an enabling and visual representation of the supply chain for critical materials. The case of tantalum shows some surprising results. First of all, this study shows that tantalum in computer hard disks and artificial joints may be more relevant than found in previous studies. Further, we find that the tantalum consumption in Europe may be larger than expected based on geological survey reports, attributed to a high fraction of tantalum being imported in subcomponents and final products. Further research is needed to substantiate this claim, but what is clear is that a detailed SFA provides valuable insights into the consumption of tantalum as a critical material, throughout the stages in the supply chain related to the production and use of tantalum‐containing products. The exercise also allowed production of waste generation profiles and enabled identification of e‐waste as an important focus group in order to improve tantalum recycling rates and eventually to reduce societys dependence on scarce or conflict‐related raw materials.