Evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of condom production in Thailand

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the potential environmental impact of natural rubber (NR) condoms over its entire life cycle. The environmental performance of the production process of NR condoms is also compared to that of synthetic polyisoprene (PI) condoms. Options to reduce the environmental impact of condom production are proposed and evaluated. The potential environmental impacts are quantified by life cycle assessment (LCA). The study takes a cradle-to-grave approach, and considers six phases: 1) fresh latex production, 2) concentrated latex production, 3) condom production, 4) condom use, 5) condom transportation, and 6) condom disposal. The comparative analysis of NR and PI condom production takes a gate-to-gate scope. The functional unit is one gross condom. The results indicate that the condom production phase has the largest share (34-73%) in the environmental impact during the life cycle of NR condoms, followed by the disposal phase (20-60%). Comparing the production of NR and PI condoms reveals that the production of PI condoms results in a 1.5-2.5 times higher environmental impacts than the NR condom production, due to higher electricity consumption, especially for the compounding, dipping, and leaching processes. Reduction of electricity use is a key measure to reduce the environmental impact. Combining natural gas with electricity for the dipping process is a promising option to reduce the electricity use; it results in ~10-17% reduction in environmental impacts.

Social Sustainability of Raw Rubber Production: A Supply Chain Analysis under Sri Lankan Scenario

“…The rubber plantation cycle considered herein spans over 25 years and is comprised of the nursery (one year), immature (five to seven years), and mature (over 18 years) stages [42,43]. During the nursery stage, seeds are collected from mature rubber trees and put in a nursery.…”

“…However, they could be considered common to any rubber-growing country. Therefore, those were gathered from literature (i.e., [42,43]) with prices from IndiaMART [59]. Material and energy inputs related to rubber manufacture were gathered from our previous research on crepe rubber [5,24], concentrated latex [1], and RSS manufacture [11].…”

Energy Efficiency Optimization in Polyisoprene Footwear Production

“…The heat transferred to the boiler is calculated, respectively, as: 9 kJ/yea (55) Considering the above-mentioned data, the flue gases' heat recovery in the process combining air preheating using flue gases and condensate heat recovery is calculated as: or, expressed as the amount of natural gas savings in the process combing both air preheating and condensate heat recovery:…”

“…Jawjit et al's study, which discussed the potential environmental impacts of condom production in Thailand, compared the production of polyisoprene and natural rubber condoms. The production of polyisoprene condoms resulted in a 1.5-2.5 times greater environmental impact due to higher electricity consumption, leading to the conclusion that the reduction in electricity usage will experience a 10-17% reduction in environmental impacts [9]. The study on bio-polyisoprene that is produced through isoprene fermentation supposes the bio-based polyisoprene to be a sustainable alternative to the natural and synthetic rubber supply due to its decrease in greenhouse gas emission, its significantly lower land use intensity, additional energy conservation, and its reduced contribution to climate change [10].…”

Unveiling the Environmental Impacts of Concentrated Latex Manufacturing in Sri Lanka through a Life Cycle Assessment

“…They identified that electricity consumption is a crucial factor affecting the carbon footprint. Also, several LCAs are evident in the cases of Thailand [24,25] and Malaysia [26], where they focused on different environmental impact areas other than the carbon footprint (i.e., acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and photochemical oxidation). Most of these impact categories were affected by the electricity use of the subjected factories (i.e., acidification, photochemical oxidation, etc.).…”