Evolution of disposable baby diapers in Europe: life cycle assessment of environmental impacts and identification of key areas of improvement

Cordella, Mauro; Bauer, Iris; Lehmann, Anja; Schulz, Matthias; Oliver, Wolf

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.040

Cited by 80 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…From that point on, there has been a near constant debate as to the relative environmental impact of disposable and reusable diapers. Multiple studies have concluded that trade-offs exist between the two diapering options (LeVan 1995;Cordella et al 2015). Products of consumer convenience represent a class of products that has the potential shift how consumers achieve a particular goal, whether it be diapering a baby or brewing a cup of coffee.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Implications of Consumer Convenience: Coffee as a Case Study

Hicks¹

2017

J of Industrial Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Products of convenience are playing an increasingly large role in today's society. These products provide a competitive advantage over their conventional counterparts by requiring less time and effort to produce a similar service or experience. At the same time, these products are often also more materials intensive to produce and create a greater amount of waste. A comparative midpoint life cycle assessment of different coffee brewing systems is presented in order to explore the comparative impact of three different systems: drip filter, french press, and pod style (a product of convenience). Utilizing a comparative functional unit, the drip filter system method was found to have the greatest environmental impact in all impact categories, whereas the pod style had the least in six of the impact categories (with the french press having the least in two of the impact categories, and a tie between pod style and french press in a single impact category). This suggests that contrary to popular belief, the pod style coffee may be the more environmentally friendly option. The two most significant contributors to environmental impact in all of the categories considered was the amount of dry coffee utilized and the energy needed to brew the coffee, although in some categories considered transportation was also significant. There is the potential for the environmental impact of coffee brewing to shift if coffee wastage occurs (likely in the case of the drip filter and french press system) or if substantial changes in materials or energy consumption were to occur (in the case of the pod‐style brewing system). From the perspective of industrial ecology, this analysis suggests that, in regard to products of consumer convenience, the convenient alternative may not have a significantly greater environmental impact than its conventional counterpart, and that it may be time to question that often‐held assumption.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Implications of Consumer Convenience: Coffee as a Case Study

Hicks¹

2017

J of Industrial Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The health care sector could also reduce carbon emissions that occur in the global production chain of medical goods and pharmaceuticals by applying green procurement strategies. Expenditures could be reallocated to less carbon intensive forms of health care provision by changing medical procedures [34][35][36][37], or by using functionally equivalent drugs and medical devices with lower carbon intensity of production and packaging [38][39][40][41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

International comparison of health care carbon footprints

Pichler

Jaccard

Weisz

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

465

238

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change confronts the health care sector with a dual challenge. Accumulating climate impacts are putting an increased burden on the service provision of already stressed health care systems in many regions of the world. At the same time, the Paris agreement requires rapid emission reductions in all sectors of the global economy to stay well below the 2°C target. This study shows that in OECD countries, China, and India, health care on average accounts for 5% of the national CO 2 footprint making the sector comparable in importance to the food sector. Some countries have seen reduced CO 2 emissions related to health care despite growing expenditures since 2000, mirroring their economy wide emission trends. The average per capita health carbon footprint across the country sample in 2014 was 0.6 tCO 2 , varying between 1.51 tCO 2 /cap in the US and 0.06 tCO 2 /cap in India. A statistical analysis shows that the carbon intensity of the domestic energy system, the energy intensity of the domestic economy, and health care expenditure together explain half of the variance in per capita health carbon footprints. Our results indicate that important leverage points exist inside and outside the health sector. We discuss our findings in the context of the existing literature on the potentials and challenges of reducing GHG emissions in the health and energy sector.

show abstract

“…The weight increase factor for disposal was set at the same value as in Japan, or 2.6, and the waste weight was estimated at 12.720 million tonnes. The ratios of the processing methods were set at 63% for landfill and 37% for incineration [24]. Using these prerequisites, it was estimated that the GHG emissions reduction potential was 9.143 million tonnes-CO 2 e, land use occupation was 4027 km 2 a, and water consumption was 12.221 million m 3 when applying recycling throughout the world (see Table 13).…”

Section: Estimation Of the Potential For Environmental Load Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of the Closed-Loop Recycling of Used Disposable Diapers

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Japan, approximately 23.5 billion paper diapers are produced annually (total of diapers for infants and adults produced in 2018). The majority of used paper diapers are disposed of through incineration; in certain regions, some paper diapers are recycled, mostly by open-loop recycling or thermal recycling. To date, several methods of recycling used paper diapers have been proposed and developed, but these methods are considered to have different types and amounts of recycled materials and different environmental performances. In this study, a new technology was developed for the closed-loop recycling of used paper diapers, and the use of the recycled pulp and superabsorbent polymer (SAP) as materials for paper diapers was evaluated via the environmental impact using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, using data obtained from experimental facilities for recycling. The results between the comparison of the new method with the landfill and incineration processes demonstrate a greenhouse gas reduction of 47% and 39%, respectively. The results also show that such recycling is expected to reduce land-use occupation and water consumption, closely related to the pulp, main raw material of paper diapers.

show abstract

Evolution of disposable baby diapers in Europe: life cycle assessment of environmental impacts and identification of key areas of improvement

Cited by 80 publications

References 20 publications

Environmental Implications of Consumer Convenience: Coffee as a Case Study

Environmental Implications of Consumer Convenience: Coffee as a Case Study

International comparison of health care carbon footprints

Life Cycle Assessment of the Closed-Loop Recycling of Used Disposable Diapers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About