Recycling of aluminum can in terms of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)

Background, Aims and Scope Life Cycle Assessment is a technique for evaluating the environmental performance of a given product by: identifying and quantifying the energy and raw materials used in its manufacturing process, as well as the emissions of pollutants to water, soil, and air inherent in this production, use and disposal, and evaluating the environmental impact associated with the use of energy and materials and the emissions of pollutants, thus identifying opportunities to improve the system in order to optimize the environmental performance of the product. CETEA (Packaging Technology Center) has conducted a Life Cycle Assessment — LCA study of aluminum can with emphasis in life cycle inventory, collecting data for the reference years 2000–2002. The goal of this paper is to present part of this complete study, focusing the influence of aluminium recycling rate on the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of aluminum beverage cans in Brazil. Methods The adopted methodology was based on the recommendations of SETAC — Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and the ISO 14040 Standard, approved by the Sub-Committee 05 of the Environmental Administration Technical Committee, TC-207, from ISO — INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION [1,2]. Data storage and modeling were performed by employing the PIRA Environmental Management System — PEMS [3]. Results Taking into account the impact categories adopted in this study, it has been shown that recycling helps to improve the aluminium can environmental profile measured as LCI data. Discussion For the transformed aluminium products, the recycling rate affects the values of the environmental parameters inventoried, but not in the same proportion, since the contribution of other stages of the product system life cycle and the recycling process remain unchanged, including the yield of this process. In general, the recycling balance is always positive due to the importance of the stages that precede the packaging production and the problem of increasing the municipal waste volume. Conclusions The advantages of the recycling are obviously concentrated on the inventoried parameters related to the primary aluminum production and to the package disposal. The verified benefits of the recycling increase with the recycling rate enhancement. However, the effects on the inventory do not have the same magnitude of the recycling rate. This happens due to the relative contributions of the other life cycle stages, suc