life cycle assessment of disposable razors

After the products make their way to consumers and serve their purpose, the waste must be dealt with. Upgrading to a new, energy-efficient autoclave machine leads to a nearly equal reduction in life cycle GHG emissions and may be considered particularly in instances in which older equipment is being used. Choosing models that use alternate materials is recommended, particularly because the American Medical Association is urging hospitals and health systems to reduce their use of PVC products, especially those containing DEHP.26 The shipment of LMAs by air also greatly increased overall impacts, pointing to a strategy of bulk ordering from local distributors well in advance of use, and avoiding overnight shipment whenever possible. To bring the metal to its final form, it is heated to extremely high temperatures to remove the binders, and to mold the metal particles together, in turn, creating a very strong and durable metal compound (Siddle, How Is Tungsten Carbide Formed?). After the products are packaged, there has to be a way for them to get to the end consumer. (ii)Access paramount's competitive position? Life Cycle Assessment: Biopharma SUTs - BioProcess I found information about the whole blade manufacturing process, but could not find details about energy consumption in every step of the process. Life Cycle Assessment - definition & methodology. Waste is not only a problem when a product is disposed of, but also when it is initially manufactured. Life Cycle Assessment - Sustainability Guide 3.Quantify the materials and processes This reflects the equivalence between 40 disposable LMAs and their associated materials, waste, and 40 uses of 1 reusable LMA. Pollution of the oceans from plastics has become an increasingly large issue that researchers are still assessing. We perform Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Critical Reviews in accordance with ISO 14040/44 for products and services. Int J Life Cycle Assess 2001;6:7680, 13. Conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): from Theory to Practical To compile a detailed life cycle inventory of the environmental burdens They also reported how they dealt with their non-hazardous waste 76 percent was recycled, 11 percent incineration with energy recovery, 10 percent was sent to land disposal, and the remaining 3 percent was sent off for a different treatment (For You for Everyone Registration Document). However, we can discuss the energy usage of different modes of transportation. During the research, I could not find how much energy BIC injection molding machines use, but I did find the energy usage of a common injection molding machine called the Babyplast. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Complete Beginner's Guide - Ecochain (PDF) Sources, Fate and Effects of Microplastics in the Marine One of the materials used is polypropylene, a thermoplastic addition polymer made from the combination of propylene monomers (Creative Mechanisms Staff, creativemechanisms.com). Convenience is a potential advantage for disposable LMAs, and facilities that use reusable LMAs must ensure that a variety of sizes are always available when needed. Soulias M, Martin L, Garnier N, Juniot A, Aho L, Freysz M. Disposable vs reusable laryngeal mask airway: a cost-minimization analysis. Most tungsten, about 85%, is extracted from various ores in China (Siddle, How Is Tungsten Carbide Formed?). This is known as a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) This can be extremely complex because it can involve dozens of separate processes, as well as hundreds of tracked substances. The tracking can come from sales, and in 2018 more than $1.2 billion in disposable razors were sold in the U.S., with varying prices but many disposables costing less than $1 each (Olsen). 2. Its an extremely strong and durable metal compound, making it perfect for the use of razor blades (Siddle, How Is Tungsten Carbide Formed?; Tungsten Carbide. Wikipedia.org). The total amount of indirect emissions was 89,762 tonnes of carbon dioxide (For You For Everyone Registration Document). 2006 have considered a process water flow of 10,000 m3/day for a time period of 15 years (system design life) as the function unit used in order to compare the different wastewater treatment processes . What makes for an easy, simple, and affordable mass produced and used product costs more in its long afterlife in the landfill, out of sight of the buyers awareness. Depending upon on how the razor is packaged, the finished cartridge may or may not be assembled onto the handle of the razor, as some companies choose to package the handle detached the cartridge(s). 1982, www.nytimes.com/1982/04/11/business/how-bic-lost-the-edge-to-gillette.html. When you take your blades in to the scrap metal center, choose the steel recycling bin. There are various ways that the product can get there. The hardest part of this whole process is the data gathering. 11 / Piece. 3. Rogers, Tony. Disposable and reusable nappies in the UK: life cycle assessment The Environmental Protection Agency classifies DEHP as a probable carcinogen, and as a possible endocrine disrupter.24 The FDA issued an advisory in 2002 recommending steps be taken to reduce the risk of exposure to DEHP in certain populations.25 There is enough evidence of reproductive and developmental toxicant effects from DEHP for the FDA to recommend alternatives for patients deemed at high risk, namely infants, toddlers, and pregnant and lactating women. Phenylene oxide, or PPO, is another common plastic material used in disposable razors. 4. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2011, 16. Redesigning the Razor Life Cycle Assessment. The Great Recovery, http://www.greatrecovery.org.uk/resources/3682/. What Is Tungsten Carbide or Hard Metal? AZoM.com, 2 Aug. 2009, https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4827. Flying staff to meetings, shipping, and distributing the product is the highest offender for the planet. Buy Now. The metal is then heated and then cooled slowly to remove any internal stress, which makes it tougher, this process is called annealing (Safety Razor). The product fails to include proper instructions for its waste management, causing it to be disposed of, as the name suggests. Iatrogenic transmission of the CreutzfeldtJakob disease agent has been reported in >250 patients worldwide, and 6 of these were linked to the use of contaminated equipment, all of which were neurosurgical related. The remaining percentage is split up between energy consumption in their three facilities in: Clichy (France), Shelton (U.S.), and Cajamar (Brazil) (For You For Everyone: Registration Document, Bic). Part of this responsible shipping mentality forces them to change their packaging to be able to ship more at a time. @article{Cordella2015EvolutionOD, title={Evolution of disposable baby diapers in Europe: life cycle assessment of environmental impacts and identification of key areas of improvement}, author={Mauro Cordella and Iris Bauer and Anja Lehmann and Matthias Schulz and Oliver Wolf}, journal={Journal of Cleaner Production}, year={2015}, volume={95 . Shavers. BICWorld, www.bicworld.com/en/our-products/shavers. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the potential environmental aspects and potential aspects associated with a product (or service), by: compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs, evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs, In this paper, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used as a tool to quantify the environmental impacts of disposable medical face masks. This break-even point will change depending on the category of environmental impact being considered. There is uncertainty in several model assumptions. The Eco-Indicator method is a tool developed to help designers conduct a simplified LCA study. use/disposable and multiple-use/washable surgical gowns. Tungsten Carbide. Encyclopdia Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., 17 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/science/tungsten-carbide. For You For Everyone: Registration Document.Bic World, Bic, 2016, www.bicworld.com/sites/default/files/2017-03/BIC_DRF2016_EN.pdf. These results will then be used to inform the design process and improve the redesigned razor. Disposable Razors at Best Price in India - IndiaMART In this case it was very difficult to see what materials the product contained and exactly how it was manufactured (as the big manufacturing companies wouldnt disclose this information), so some of the data had to be assumed. The major problem with recycling this plastic however, is that during the heating process, the plastic degrades in quality making it less valuable (What Is Tungsten Carbide or Hard Metal?, AZoM.com). It is a thermoplastic that exhibits high heat resistance, dimensional stability, and accuracy and is often combined with other plastics, such as polystyrene, due to various problems in its processing (Poly(p-Phenylene Oxide, Wikipedia.org). Life Cycle Assessment | EcoAct The total energy consumption of the Babyplast in its four-step molding cycle of setup, fill, cool, and reset was approximately 4.5 kilowatts (Weissman et.al). The natural half life of a large stock of reusable laryngeal mask airways at a teaching hospital. The backbone of LCA is the life cycle inventory (LCI), an analysis of material and energy ows resulting from all phases of the product life cycle. The studies have not found it to be harmful to drinking water, or public safety, however, it is an ongoing research of soil data that continues. Finally, inclusion of the environmental impacts of labor for cleaning (from wages spent on goods and services) only nominally increases the total GHG and water impacts of reusable LMAs. Each time the steam autoclave machine conducts a sterilizing cycle, a large amount of energy is used to heat the steam. Individually autoclaving the reusable LMA (because of stock shortages, for example) increased life cycle GHG emissions by >400%, whereas loading with 10 LMAs per cycle decreased emissions by nearly 25%. The company reported that with their hazardous waste in 2016 11 percent was recycled, 49 percent incinerated with energy recovery, 8 percent sent to land disposal, and 32 percent was sent off to be treated in another way (For You for Everyone Registration Document). Tungsten has a high melting point and is used mainly for strong tools unless used for smaller applications when combined with a carbon alloy: Its alloys are employed in rocket-engine nozzles and other aerospace applications (Safety Razors). Energy Consumption by Mode of Transportation. Energy Consumption by Mode of Transportation | Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, www.bts.gov/content/energy-consumption-mode-transportation. to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without What does a business area's assessment of agreements, income, and value implicate? During a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), environmental impacts are evaluated throughout the entire life cycle of a product (production, use and disposal or recovery).This also includes the upstream and downstream processes associated with production (e.g., the production of . The majority (77%) of life cycle CO2e emissions for the reusable LMA is from natural gas production and combustion to produce steam for the autoclave machine. The metal is not yet to its final form, as it is still greatly held together by the previously added binders. Wat LI, Brimacombe JR, Gee S. Laryngeal mask airway longevity and pilot-balloon failure. In this case its much harder for me to carry out an LCA on a Gillette razor than if Gillette did the LCA themselves, as they would have all the correct info required first-hand (reducing the number of assumptions needing to be used). J Environ Assess Policy Manage 2000;2:45376, 2. Bics direct emissions were from: a combustion of fossil fuels, primarily natural gas and fuel oil, mainly used to heat buildings. Chain Management by Life Cycle Assessment (CMLCA) software has been used to conduct the LCA and Ecoinvent 2.01 has been used for life cycle inventory data. Park Ridge, IL: American Society of Anesthesiologists, 1999, 15. This is done on an assembly line by the robotic arm the inserts the razor blade into the small crevices in the plastic body. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) | Sustainable Agriculture Research Premature disposal of reusable LMAs has significant environmental impacts (as well as costs, discussed below). BIC reported that every year around 2.6 billion of their razors are chosen by consumers every year (Shaver's). To create the metal compound, carbon is added to the purified tungsten in a complex chemical process where the materials are heated to over 2,200 degrees celsius. Shabecoff, Philip. It all starts with the melting and combining of the desired metal. Phoenix: IEEE, 2008, 23. Staff, Creative Mechanisms. Siddle, Dave. Decision makers have typically favored disposable LMAs because the purchase price is perceived to be less for a comparable quantity of disposable LMAs, in comparison with 1 reusable LMA with its associated labor costs for in-house reprocessing.6. This study assumed no difference between the devices in terms of clinical efficacy or time for placement.4 Disposable LMAs were discarded in regular municipal solid waste bins after use. E.P.A. This manuscript was handled by: Steven L. Shafer, MD. More immediate levels of waste, however, happen during the processing of disposable razors before they are even brought to the buyer and the landfill. Life cycle assessment of a disposable and a reusable surgery instrument set for spinal fusion surgeries Leiden A, Cerdas F, Noriega D, Beyerlein J, Herrmann C. Life cycle assessment of a disposable and reusable surgery instrument set for spinal fusion surgeries. The majority of life cycle human health impacts of disposable LMAs are caused by PVC use in packaging and the device itself. Disposable and reusable LMAs typically differ in material composition, packaging, reuse, and cost. Any extra plastic will be discarded, remelted, and reused (Safety Razor, madehow.com). Online Course Life Cycle Assessment | MIT Professional Education What Is Polystyrene? Assessing all steps in that life cycle provides insight into individual stresses and burden shifts from one step to another and enables understanding of both the cumulative environmental impacts and related trade-offs in each area, throughout the lifespan of both a facility and its manufactured products. %PDF-1.5 % A major flaw in the disposable razors design is in fact its inability to be sustainably and properly disposed, despite what its name suggests. On the basis of observation at Yale New Haven Hospital, it takes approximately 10 minutes to conduct all cleaning processes for 1 LMA, which is equivalent to roughly $3 in wages. Chu L, Mathur P, Trudell J, Brock-Utne J. McGain F, McAlister S, McGavin A, Story D. The financial and environmental costs of reusable and single-use plastic anaesthetic drug trays. Data Uncertainty. The Bic corporation considers their environmental impact and takes steps to reduce as much waste as possible. Their carbon footprint was reported with the highest offender being air travel for the product, and staff transportation coming from France: accounting for 73% of the companys annual greenhouse gas emissions (Bic). American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Task Force on Infection Control. Life cycle assessment of stainless-steel reusable speculums versus The most important sources of impacts for the disposable LMA were the production of polymers, packaging, and waste management, whereas for the reusable LMA, washing and sterilization dominated for most impact categories. Address correspondence to Jodi Sherman, MD, Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, 333 Cedar Street, TMP3, New Haven, CT 06520. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. This obviously makes the results less accurate, but it can still be used as a general indicator of impact. The Great Recovery was a project by the RSA working with Innovate UK which ran between 2012 and 2016. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to identify the environmental risks of existing and planned products, services and manufacturing processes as well as identify strategic improvement opportunities. Despite manufacturer-recommended cleaning processes, and various modifications thereof, proteinaceous material may remain on reusable LMAs.27 Of particular concern, these residues may expose patients to prions causing transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, CreutzfeldtJakob disease. Once the plastic has cooled, the pieces are released from the moulds. In their study of Life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment technologies treating petroleum process waters, Vlaopolous et al. During production, two components have to be created which are the blade and the plastic body. Most of those razors just end up in a landfill because most countries are not recycling them. LCA for product sustainability. Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Disposable Bioreactors - BioProcess InternationalBioProcess International Upstream Processing Bioprocessing begins upstream, most often with culturing of animal or microbial cells in a range of vessel types (such as bags or stirred tanks) using different controlled feeding, aerating, and process strategies. Please try again soon. Since BICs products do not go to a single location it is impossible to give an exact number for BICs energy usage in transportation. BIC is voicing their concern about the environmental impact that their large production goals can have. Growing awareness of the negative impacts from the practice of health care on the environment and public health calls for the routine inclusion of life cycle criteria into the decision-making process of device selection. We are proud that it is among the leading professional LCA software . Razor blades dull quickly after repeated use, and are recommended to be used only three to ten times, making them a cheap alternative to reusable cartridges. 3 in Table 1). Though technicians are paid regardless of whether they are cleaning LMAs or are performing some other task, these wages are nonetheless assigned to the reusable LMA on the basis of time spent. The autoclave was typically run with 5 LMAs, although loading varied significantly. BIC Group, 2016, Sustainable Development Report. London The newest effort to recycle disposable razors is being done in France by BIC, but the company has said that they do not plan on unveiling a recycling program anywhere else yet (Powers). Life cycle assessment - Universitetet i Agder Recommendations for Infection Control for the Practice of Anesthesiology. The cartridge-based razor had a slightly higher impact due to the rubber parts which cant be separated from the plastic body. The environmental impacts of the 2 LMAs were estimated using SimaPro life cycle assessment software and the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability impact assessment method. LCA's are completed particularly in relation to how to develop a sustainable world where less waste and more reuse is implemented. By not using air travel and transport, BIC greatly reduces their energy usage and carbon footprint at the same time. At the end of applying the additives, the blades are once again heated, to cement the coating onto the blade. Reusable LMAs were collected in a dirty device bin on the anesthesia cart and then reprocessed by the anesthesia technicians. E-LCA is a time tested assessment technique that evaluates environmental performance throughout the life cycle of a product or from performing a service. The next step in the process is the assembly of all the parts. These benefits must be weighed against concerns regarding transmission of infection. Zhang TW, Dornfeld DA. Address e-mail to [emailprotected]. GaBi includes its own database containing life cycle inventories of processes such as polypropylene manufacturing, transportation, and landfill . Julabo Gmbh, et al. Redesigning the Razor Life Cycle Assessment.The Great Recovery, www.greatrecovery.org.uk/resources/3682/. The Bic Razor, Still the Sharpest of the Bunch. Plastics Le Mag, 31 Jan. 2017, plastics-themag.com/The-Bic-razor-still-the-sharpest-of-the-bunch. Interpretation of results The last step in the process is to interpret the results and compare them against each other. Two Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methodologies were employed using SimaPro software 51,52 to calculate the environmental impacts of manufacturing both the plastic and compostable coffee . I could however not find any details about the energy consumption of the machines used in the assembly process. The life of a typical razor blade is not an easy one. Manufacturing Processes (RAZOR): KAI FACTORY: KAI Group.KAI FACTORY | KAI Group, www.kai-group.com/global/en/kai-factory/process/razor/. Gillette Mach3 Disposable Razors for Men, 6 Count, Designed for Sensitive Skin. The Potential of Polypropylene.Recycling Today, Recycling Today, 17 July 2019, www.recyclingtoday.com/article/the-recycling-potential-of-polypropylene/. The fewer LMAs placed in the autoclave, the larger the impacts on GHG emissions and global warming on each individual unit. Until now, we defined what we want to measure and collect in phase 1. Erosion time for the blades was difficult to find, yet tungsten steel does erode faster than the plastic elements to the disposable razor due to the carbon alloys brittle makeup. Health care facilities can decrease their environmental impacts by using reusable LMAs, to a lesser extent by selecting disposable LMA models that are not made of certain plastics, and by ordering in bulk from local distributors. Poly(Phenylene Oxide). The Polymer Science Learning Center, www.pslc.ws/macrog/ppo.htm. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2000 rev, 25. 85 percent of the energy came from electricity, 14 percent came from gas, and the rest came from fuel oil (For You For Everyone Registration Document). Information on PPO plastics are difficult to find, as most of the data is about how it is made, and the chemical makeup and stability of the plastic, rather than information on the decomposition rate or waste used in the making of it. Life Cycle Assessment - GDRC It is used to assist companies, consumers, and policy-makers in greening their practices and decisions. By far, the biggest impact during the manufacturing of the razors was the 17 spot welds done in each cartridge. Its aim is a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of products and services. An LCA is a life cycle assessment which is completed through research, testing and understanding of the environmental impacts a particular item creates through it's resources use/ production/distribution/disposal. The EPA has now stopped tracking the: impact of disposable razors on the environment and has no update on the figure (Olsen). The life cycle impacts of the disposable and reusable LMA options are shown in Figure 2 for all impact categories, on the basis of data from Yale New Haven Hospital. Life Cycle Assessment of Compostable Coffee Pods: A US - Nature Plastics are cleaned and pelletized to be recycled into new products, such as picnic tables and park benches. Life cycle assessment is a "cradle-to-grave" approach for determining the financial and environmental costs of a product over its entire life. The tungsten carbide is then ground into an extremely fine powder in a wet mill process, where metal binders and other metals such as cobalt may be added to increase the metals strength and durability and to help hold the powder together when it is shaped. Reusable LMA cleaning was observed to proceed as follows. The results also suggest effective procurement strategies for reducing the impacts of disposable LMAs where they are selected. Powers, Matt, and Amanda M. Can You Recycle Disposable Razors? Earth911.Com, 30 July 2019, earth911.com/living-well-being/health/can-you-recycle-disposable-razors/. A 2005 analysis published by U.K. From the *Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA; School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Department of Anesthesiology, Yale School of Medicine/YaleNew Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT. Funding: Department of Anesthesiology, Yale School of Medicine. Disposable razors are a product that can be found in almost any average bathroom. Additionally, the PVC-dominated material composition of the disposable LMA and associated packaging added significantly to its impacts. Table 2 shows the results of alternate assumption on the overall results. Here we present a life cycle assessment of 2 laryngeal mask airways (LMAs), a one-time-use disposable Unique LMA and a 40-time-use reusable Classic LMA. Bic USAs 2016 registration document provides information about the waste produced during the manufacturing of the razors. Paper diapers for infants, which are highly convenient as they do not require laundering like cloth diapers, are essential for daily life in Japan. The stability of the plastic components, while necessary for shelf stability and use, takes longer than one persons life-span to decompose. Criteria air pollutants arise for the disposable LMA primarily from the production of ethylene (a polymer precursor) and the combustion of natural gas throughout the system, and for the reusable LMA from the combustion of fossil fuels to produce steam and electricity. No such cases have been reported since 1976.a There is no reported case of iatrogenic infection of any type linked to a reusable LMA. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. Experience spanning from the market-leading environment and climate practice of a global top 10 law firm - to leading Europe's largest . This liquid material is then injected into moulds, or extruded through moulds, where it will cool and take the form of the desired cartridge and handle shape. Ask a worker if you can put them in the bin by themselves or if they need to be in a recyclable container to protect sanitation workers from being cut. Despite its ability to be recycled, it often ends up in the landfill as many people dont know how to properly recycle it, people are too lazy to recycle, or the plastics arent labeled properly (Polypropylene. Wikipedia). With such a fast accumulating waste and slow decomposition rate, there must be changes and incentive for companies to rethink the disposable razor. Their disposable nature causes them to be put into landfills faster than it takes them to be made, packaged, and shipped. How One Company Keeps Used Razors Out Of Oceans.Green Matters, Green Matters, 25 Sept. 2017, www.greenmatters.com/news/2017/09/25/Z1oInGt/razors-ocean. One of their most popular products is the disposable razor, which they started to manufacture in 1975. climate change, summer smog, resource depletion, acidification, human health effects, etc. The processes that contribute to these emissions differ markedly between the 2 LMA devices. The data collected through LCA helps organizations make conscious decisions that affect the environment. Life cycle analysis takes into account the following categories: Energy consumption Water consumption Air emissions (including carbon dioxide and other global warming gases) Water emissions Generation of solid waste Cargo planes and other transport aircraft use jet fuel which produces 135,000 BTU per gallon (Energy Consumption by Mode of Transportation.). The alloy is strong enough to resist moisture for a short time in the buyers shower, yet, in the landfill, it does eventually rust and decompose. After the plastic body is manufactured it goes through inspections similar to ones the blades go through. The number of BIC razors that are used by consumers is astounding. The total amount of Direct emissions from BIC factories was 8,689 tonnes of carbon dioxide (For You For Everyone Registration Document). This means, of the 2 billion razors disposed of annually within the United States, each razor will be on the planet longer than the people who used them. Life-cycle assessment - Ways of reducing the use of resources - AQA

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