| Product Life Cycle Environmental Impact and Risk Information |
Basic rule for efficient and sustainable resource and environmental quality management = minimize cumulative product life cycle risks and environmental impacts. The product life cycle system defines the material and energy flows and conversions in the total life cycle of a product. It can be organized into five basic subsystems or segments:
1. Raw Materials Procurement
2. Manufacturing
3. Consumer Use
4. Resource Recovery
5. Disposal The risks and environmental impacts associated with the product life cycle include: - virgin raw materials consumption
- energy consumption - air pollutant emissions - water pollutant discharges - hazardous waste generation - nonhazardous waste generation - radioactive waste generation - industrial accidents - occupational safety and health risks - consumer safety and health risks - ecological degradation The life cycle framework provides a systematic method to evaluate risks and environmental impacts associated with the flow and conversion of material and energy throughout the system. Applications of the product life cycle framework include: 1) consumer product comparative risk and environmental impact assessment, 2) product and process design guidelines to minimize risks and impacts, 3) product labeling and 4) policy making.
Do prices of consumer products reflect true social, and environmental costs? Two important market failures that lead to inefficient resource and environmental quality management are 1) externalities, which are costs born by society that are not included in the price of a good or service (e.g., industrial pollution and the disposal of consumer products); and 2) lack of information about risks and environmental impacts for the consumer.
From the "Diaper Dilemma", Michigan Consumer Education Conference, 1990, presented by Greg A. Keoleian, Research Fellow in the School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan.
MSU 2003
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