life cycle assessment of disposable razors

Sherman JD, Ryan S. Ecological responsibility in anesthesia practice. Once in the landfill, it usually takes around 20-30 years to breakdown. The Bic USAs company website provides information about the making of the razors in the factories, regarding their inspection and factory standards, yet there is no mention for the environmental impact of the disposal. Life Cycle Assessment Explained - STiCH The biggest impact during the cartridge-based razor life-cycle is manufacturing the cartridge as this is the part which is hardest to make. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measures the impact of products on the environment. Life Cycle Assessment of Reusable and Disposable Cleanroom Coveralls Manufacturing Processes (RAZOR): KAI FACTORY: KAI Group. KAI FACTORY | KAI Group, www.kai-group.com/global/en/kai-factory/process/razor/. Life of a Razor Blade - GreatRazors.com Eckelman, Matthew PhD*; Mosher, Margo; Gonzalez, Andres; Sherman, Jodi MD. In this post I havent shown the whole process, but there are downloadable links to my full Eco-Indicator results, and to the template form if youd like to carry out an assessment yourself. The actual making of the razors, and printing paper for their packaging has a lower environmental impact, than the waste from the factories high energy use. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Complete Beginner's Guide - Ecochain Life cycle assessment of bio-based products: a disposable diaper case However, BIC did report some of its transportation statistics. In life cycle assessment, the basis of comparison is called the functional unit. For this report, the functional unit of the disposable and reusable LMAs was taken to be maintenance of airway patency by 40 disposable LMAs or 40 uses of 1 reusable LMA.9 Data collection was specific to Yale New Haven Hospital, including device transportation, cleaning procedures and labor, energy requirements, and disposal. Sustainability | Free Full-Text | Reducing the Environmental Impact of The 1% of the material that is recycled however, goes through a 5 step recycling process which is collecting, sorting, cleaning, reprocessing, and producing new products. Disposable razors are created for a short user time, and an easy answer to the growing populations fast paced lifestyles and needs for shaving: they are primarily designed to be simple, economical, and disposable (Safety Razor). Soulias M, Martin L, Garnier N, Juniot A, Aho L, Freysz M. Disposable vs reusable laryngeal mask airway: a cost-minimization analysis. The company urges users to mail packages over 15 lbs., in order to reduce the waste of mail as well, yet is not necessary. The carbon footprint reported was separated into two sections which are direct and indirect emissions. The Eco-Indicator for EPDM rubber includes the manufacturing of the rubber as well as the molding process. The scope of our analysis, as is shown in Figure 1, includes extraction of material and energy resources, manufacturing, packaging and transport from the manufacturing site to the distribution center and the hospital, reprocessing, and eventual disposal. A new incentive must come for companies to be more sustainable with resources and create products that can still be cheap for the buyer, while also not taking a high cost on the environment. The product fails to include proper instructions for its waste management, causing it to be disposed of, as the name suggests. 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. Overall, reusable LMAs were found to have fewer negative environmental effects in nearly all categories, typically contributing <50% of the impacts of disposable LMAs. All of these equipment-related cases occurred before the routine implementation of sterilization procedures currently used in health care facilities. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 156 (2020) 104704. After that, the metal is pressed down to the desired blade thickness which is around 1mm (Manufacturing Processes). By raising awareness and creating locations where one can drop off used razors for recycling, perhaps a change can come. For example, LCA results can tell us if one product is environmentally preferable to another . After getting the sharpened blade they are coated with a thin film to allows them to not lose sharpness after only a few shaves (Manufacturing Processes). 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. 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. This is because of the complexity of the life cycle, from the acquisition of materials to the management of a product at the end of its life. The Great Recovery was a project by the RSA working with Innovate UK which ran between 2012 and 2016. However, because of the new awareness to their wasteful impact on the environment, some companies have begun to provide solutions to the disposable razor issue. 2. An estimated 1 L of tap water was used to wash and rinse 1 LMA (or 40 L over a lifetime of 40 uses). Reusable LMAs were collected in a dirty device bin on the anesthesia cart and then reprocessed by the anesthesia technicians. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Europa With the results we supply the basis for strategic decisions for sustainable action. The disposable LMA consisted largely of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, and the reusable LMA consisted primarily of silicone. American Medical Association (AMA). BIC has done their best to deal with waste in an environmentally conscious manner. The metal is not yet to its final form, as it is still greatly held together by the previously added binders. Manufacturer specifications indicate 20 kWh of electricity use for a 5-minute cycle at 135C. 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. Life Cycle Assessment of a Building | Sphera In 2016, Bic reduced packaging for their Soleil Razor by 40%. Anesth Analg 1998;87:921, 3. All that is needed is the insertion of the razor blade into the plastic body. 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 razors are mainly made of plastic, so they will be decomposing at a very slow rate in the landfill. We are proud that it is among the leading professional LCA software . Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. In the case of the disposable razor however, it is fairly simple due to its nature. 1. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Sustainability Assessment - Fraunhofer To start the process of making the blades, tungsten carbide is melted at high temperatures. A complete life cycle cost analysis would complement the life cycle assessment results shown here; however, a simple analysis reveals that, assuming full utilization, a $200 reusable LMA costs $5 per use, plus $3 per cleaning for a unit cost of $8, excluding utility and hospital overhead costs. :396?Qkt)e. Uncertainties about the correctness of the model. If you count the actual razor cover (if you haven't lost it long ago) then it will be four pieces for recycling. Sustainability | Free Full-Text | Life Cycle Assessments of Takeaway But this is expected from a large brand like Gillette. Quantifying the Environmental Impacts of Labor. BIC reported that the weight of one of their most popular disposable razors is 8.8 grams (Shavers). 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. %%EOF After that the blades go through a blade edging process, which consists of the blade strips first being coarsely ground by whetstone, second being ground at an angle with a finer whetstone, and then having the tip of the blades ground (Manufacturing Processes). LCAs can be used comparatively to assess different product or service design options or to identify environmental . A Life Cycle Assessment of Disposable Razors. The final product is then gathered and prepared to go through the final step which is the packaging of razors. Its aim is a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of products and services. Life Cycle Assessment Study single use vs. multiple use Premature disposal of reusable LMAs has significant environmental impacts (as well as costs, discussed below). The authors declare no conflict of interest. 13, 14 There are few published life cycle assessment studies of medical items (ref. However, by looking at just this one company, there is a sense of the massive amount of direct and indirect emissions from just the making of razors that are thrown away so quickly after use, with an increase annually of users. Safety Assessment of Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) Released from PVC Medical Devices. The largest source of GHG emissions for the disposable LMAs (23%) is the production and polymerization of PVC, the main material constituent. American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Task Force on Infection Control. The majority of life cycle human health impacts of disposable LMAs are caused by PVC use in packaging and the device itself. The effect of alternate transport modes was quite small for the reusable LMA but quite significant for the disposable LMAs, leading to a large increase in GHG emissions in particular from air freight. climate change, summer smog, resource depletion, acidification, human health effects, etc. Once Terracycle has collected the waste, it is: broken down and separated by material. There is uncertainty in several model assumptions. (i)What changes occurring in non-disposable Razor category? #4. You Asked, We Answered. Chronicle, 12 June 2015, chronicle.kennametal.com/what-is-tungsten-carbide-you-asked-we-answered/. The use of LCA to introduce life-cycle thinking into decision-making for the purchase of medical devices in the NHS. Ann Fr Anesth Reanim 2006;25:8114, 7. The blade is made from a tungsten steel, and carbon alloy. Lippiatt BC, Boyles AS. How Does Polystyrene Recycling Work?HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 4 Apr. How Is Tungsten Carbide Formed? Chronicle, 20 Aug. 2015, chronicle.kennametal.com/how-is-tungsten-carbide-formed/. The metal must be mined and extracted from the mountain causing an emission of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases (Wang). Anesth Analg 2012;114:105566, 8. This assessment is exceptionally useful as it shows the designer what areas are the most impactful during the products life cycle. International Sympsium on Sustainable Systems and Technology. 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. Applying this method of assessment is complex and difficult and translating the theory into a . Ans: (i) Significant growth in industry of super premium segment . The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) was introduced into clinical use in the late 1980s and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the US in 1991. The hardest part of this whole process is the data gathering. BIC said that around 98 percent of its intercompany product transfer was done by transportation methods that were not related to air-freight (For You For Everyone Registration Document). 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%. Everything You Need To Know About Polypropylene (PP) Plastic. Everything You Need To Know About Polypropylene (PP) Plastic, https://www.creativemechanisms.com/blog/all-about-polypropylene-pp-plastic. The autoclave was typically run with 5 LMAs, although loading varied significantly. To aid in solving this issue, I believe consumers should stray away from wasteful disposable razors and be encouraged to go with more sustainable and longer lasting options such as classic safety razors. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Guide to Best Practice - ResearchGate Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities. Life Cycle Assessment: Biopharma SUTs - BioProcess hbbd``b`z$k@D 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. Saudi J Anaesth 2008;2:58. Properly Recycle Your Disposable Razors | Leafygreen.info Manufacturers can do this solely by machine or by human eye/hand plus machine for extra quality assurance. 3 Ways to Recycle Safety Razor Blades - wikiHow Life Data Uncertainty. Disposable Razors at Best Price in India - IndiaMART Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Transportation, 2002, 14. The metal used for the razor blades is called Tungsten Carbide which is used in wear applications, such as shaving (Safety Razor). Sensor3 disposable razors for men feature an enhanced Lubrastrip with water activated Comfortgel technology for ultra-gentle shaving on your sensitive skin. The buyer online is not exposed to the long lasting waste of the razors after they are thrown out. h[K#1}\$u@ By far, the biggest impact during the manufacturing of the razors was the 17 spot welds done in each cartridge. f'C58NQ}i:]1 $Nh@b8H|iWILGgj{J27]Xp0N@h+ !` >q After the parts are manufactured it is time for the final product assembly. The plastic and steel elements of the razor can be recycled, yet, because they are so lightweight and small it makes it hard to separate in the trash and unable to be recycled normally. Finally, the razors are packaged in cardboard and plastic, and shipped out to stores and markets globally for customers to purchase and use. qILL@#nO @8 Tungsten Carbide. Encyclopdia Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., 17 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/science/tungsten-carbide. Dbendorf, Switzerland, 2011, 12. The Bic corporation considers their environmental impact and takes steps to reduce as much waste as possible. 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. 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). 3.Quantify the materials and processes The next step is to temper the steel at a temperature of 482-752F (250- 400C) and pressed into thin sheets (Safety Razor, madehow.com). Polycarbonate production (14%), transportation via truck (15%), thermoforming (13%), and waste disposal (11%) cause the majority of the remaining emissions. The original LMA was a reusable device (Intavent International SA, Henley-on-Thames, UK). Features Downloads. To begin the process of creating the razor blades, tungsten carbide, which is the metal that the blades and other optional components are made of, must first be manufactured. The study found that: Despite the overall lower impacts of the reusable LMA, there are still several ways that its environmental profile could be improved, as suggested by the results shown in Table 2. This is where the razors are portioned into their desired packaging amounts, that will be sent off to consumers. Life Cycle Assessment - GDRC Redesigning the Razor Life Cycle Assessment.The Great Recovery, www.greatrecovery.org.uk/resources/3682/. Materials were matched with appropriate life cycle inventory records from the ecoinvent database.11 Injection molding was assumed for the hard plastic pieces (polycarbonate and ABS plastic) and thermoforming for the softer plastics (silicone, polypropylene, and PVC). Where material types were unknown, proxies were assumed from relevant literature,2 although more detailed material information from suppliers would permit a more robust analysis. Shavers. BICWorld, www.bicworld.com/en/our-products/shavers. Through an examination of how the raw materials: carbide steel, tungsten steel, and a combination of the plastics: polypropylene, polystyrene, and phenylene oxide of the razors decompose, and how much waste is accumulated in making the razors, an assessment can be made for the duration of their life cycle. 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. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is where the impacts on the environment are calculated. "Tungsten Processing." There are land, air, and water-based transportation methods. Due to the nature of the disposable razor, they are usually just thrown in the trash and sent off to a landfill. LCA is a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service. The advantage of using this method compared to a more comprehensive LCA method is that its much simpler to carry out and to gather the required information because the data regarding the most common materials and processes has been collected in advance. However, it is fairly easy to find what the disposable razors components are made of, due to its simplicity. Clean Edge, Non Disposable razor case study analysis - SlideShare Life cycle assessment is a "cradle-to-grave" approach for determining the financial and environmental costs of a product over its entire life. Health care facilities can decrease their environmental impacts by using reusable LMAs, by selecting disposable LMA models that are not made of certain plastics, and by ordering in bulk from local distributors. Address correspondence to Jodi Sherman, MD, Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, 333 Cedar Street, TMP3, New Haven, CT 06520. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) - A Complete Guide to LCAs Of course the 2.6 billion razors were not, all the same, however, we can still give a ballpark estimate of how many tonnes of plastic/metal waste is being produced every year. Not all form of impacts are valued the same, so the ones with the largest impact should be tackled first in order to produce the maximum overall improvement. Life Cycle Assessment - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics The largest sources of both cancer and noncancer impacts for the reusable LMA are from emissions from waste management (35%), the mining and production of metals to build wastewater treatment infrastructure (25%), and the bleaching of packaging paper and the card insert (20%). 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. Gillette's slogan 'Gillette - the best a man can get' is famous the world over. When you take your blades in to the scrap metal center, choose the steel recycling bin. 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. Wolters Kluwer Health Terracycle. 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. After reaching the end of their useful lives, both LMAs and their respective packages entered waste management, which was modeled using US average statistics on recycling/composting, landfilling, and incineration.15 Although some incineration facilities also produce electricity, this credit is not included here. When designing a product for circularity it is often difficult to know where to begin. life cycle assessment European Environment Agency With the recommended use of three to ten uses for disposable razors, they quickly end up in the landfill to decompose. Such an analysis is commonly performed using life cycle assessment. It is also often not accepted in curbside recycling, and even when it is, it is not separated and recycled when it reaches the dumping station, making it an unsustainable and wasteful material (Polystyrene. Wikipedia.org). This means that it takes around 1 BTU to heat a 0.035-ounce razor blade to the desired temperature (Julabo et.al). Safety Razor. How Products Are Made, www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Safety-Razor.html. RSA 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. The Nation's Freight: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 21 offers from $5.20. There is always some level of uncertainty in the results and in the methodology; so users shouldnt take the numbers shown as absolute values, but more as a guide to prioritise work. : Uses, Benefits, and Safety Facts, ChemicalSafetyFacts.org,). I could however not find any details about the energy consumption of the machines used in the assembly process. Our team of experts has many years of experience in the ecological evaluation of products and services. This is the fourth installment in a series of blogs in which weexplore how to design a product for circularity. On the basis of manufacturer information and density testing, the materials used in the 2 LMAs were identified and their compositions measured using a microgram scale (Table 1). BIC reported that every year around 2.6 billion of their razors are chosen by consumers every year (Shaver's). Conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): from Theory to Practical BIC currently holds around 11 percent market share in disposable razors (Nash). Each year in Italy, millions of tons of fruits and vegetables are harvested, packed and transported to national and foreign retail outlets. Until now, we defined what we want to measure and collect in phase 1. There is also an additional resin called fluorine resin that is applied to the blades, which allows them to freely glide on the skin. Williams S, Henderson K. A survey into the number of times laryngeal masks are used. Polypropylene is recyclable with the resin code of 5, which is its numbered identification code that is used to identify what resins plastic products are made of, and indicate how they are recycled. From:. The alternatives are objects made of bio compostable plastic,. There are 3 key tasks in this step. An LCA is an accounting of the inputs and outputs for a product system, beginning with extraction of raw materials from the earth and continuing through all of the steps of transportation, manufacturing, product fabrication, product use, and end-of-life, which may include reuse, recycling . Lv, Andrea Lind, and Tigist Fetene. The high levels of pollution from disposable razor blades alone caused the EPA to claim a national garbage crisis in the late 1980s, and the actual figure of 2 billion razors thrown away every year dates back to the 1990s. Biro P. Damage to laryngeal masks during sterilization. To compile a detailed life cycle inventory of the environmental burdens You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. 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). Life cycle assessment of stainless-steel reusable speculums versus We can see how the double edge safety razor has a much lower impact due to the low amount of parts and materials used and the fact that the blade can be separated from the rest of the body and recycled (reducing the overall impact of the product). Alternate assumptions were used to test model sensitivity and to create bounds to aid interpretation of the results (Table 2).

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