Waste Policy Assignment-LCA summary report

Basketball Shoes Life-Cycle Assessment

Summary Report

1. The Life Cycle of Basketball shoesThe functional unit of this study is ‘The use of one pair of basketball shoes.’ The life cycle of a pair of basketball shoes starts with resource gathering, materials preparation, usage and ends up with disposal or recycling. This boundary includes the whole life-cycle. Generally, shoe production procedure can be observed and analyzed within 5 phases in the life-cycle order.

1.1 Resource

The basic resources from nature to support producing a pair of basketball shoe can be categorized into 5 headings, including the cattle farming, cotton planting, virgin rubber collection, mine and petroleum exploitation. The operations of the entire resources gathering procedure will require the storage to secure the resource state in the first place. Transportation will be needed to move the resource from the field to the factories. Power consumption is during the entire the resource gathering stage.

1.2 Material

As the original resources are delivered to the processing factories, they will be produced into elementary materials. These materials include leather, Nylon, EVA and adhesives. The virgin rubber will be made into the sole shape. Cotton will become cloth in the spinning mill.

‘Life Cycle Assessment of Footwear for Simple Shoes’, Miller. J and Albers. K, 2009

1.3 Manufacture

In the design phase, stylist sometimes may develop new technology and appearance for the basketball shoes. This may require new materials associated with new resources. In shoe manufacturing procedure, leather and cloth cutting into particular shapes is the first step. Then the leather and cloth will be stitched. The gluing of the sole and upper comes next. Packaging comes at the last moment.

1.4 Use

In the phase, the delivery is the most important part. Transportation requires extra energy consumption different from the producing phases.

1.5 End-of-Life

In this phase, it includes the management to handle the basketball shoes which are out of their function. The main disposal to treat the waste are the recycling, landfilling and burning. The rubber can be recycled to produce new rubber. Most of the leather and cotton cloth can be managed by natural degradation in the landfill. But most of the petroleum production can only be burned.

2. Impact Assessment Results

The study of a pair of basketball shoes life-cycle effects can be identified with 4 indicators with a simple judgment.

2.1 CO₂ emission

This kind of impact is usually caused by the fossil production burning.

2.2 Fossil fuel depletion

The petroleum exploitation and the use of petroleum production will cause the depletion.

2.3 Land use

The factories and landfills are the significant land users. Each of them may cause impacts to the landscape and its quality.

2.4 Water

A significant view of the potential eutrophication can be observed at the tannery in the material phase. (Milà. L, 1998)

3.Conclusion

By seeing the entire procedure of shoes producing, the materials can be alternative. The renewable and recycled materials can be used to reduce the negative environmental impacts. The reuse of car tires can be alternative for the sole materials. This may reduce the fossil consumption and the CO₂ and SO₂ emissions.

Reference

Miller. J and Albers. K, 2009, ‘Life Cycle Assessment of Footwear for Simple Shoes’, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/boboskips/Copy-of-SimpleFinal-Presentation [Accessed 11 February, 2016 ]

Milà. L, Domènech. X, Rieradevall. J, Fullana. P, and Puig. R. (1998) ‘Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Footwear’, The International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment. pp203-208. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225840953 [Accessed 10 February, 2016 ]