Green manufacturing and environment

Due to growing environmental concerns and a shortage of the required materials for manufacturing of products, green manufacturing has the same and, in some cases, more importance than productivity in today's industry. Considering such a great significance, this chapter provides a framework to discuss the green manufacturing topic and many key related concepts. For this purpose, the importance of topic is discussed first. Then, recycling and reuse concepts are explained. Following that, recycling and reuse of aluminum, paper, and plastic-as three widely used materials in the industry-are compared. Next, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is introduced, and the implementation of that for evaluation of the life-cycle environmental impact of glass packaging used in the beverage industry is shown. Finally, the Czech Republic is chosen as the case study, and by giving three examples, the past and current status-as well as barriers in relation to the social, environmental, and economic pillars-is completely described.