Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) charts the environmental impact of a material or a product "from cradle to grave" and is an important tool for sustainable development. For steel and aluminium there are seven distinct stages from extraction of raw materials to "end of life":
- Mining and generation (producing raw materials and generating energy)
- Production (of metals)
- Transport (of all raw materials, products, by-products and wastes)
- Processing (manufacturing products from steel or aluminium)
- Consumption (use of the final product by the customer)
- Recycling (recovery and reuse of the end-of-life product)
- Disposal (when recycling is no longer a viable option).
LCA has become an important part of the company’s environmental strategy. Corus recently participated in a worldwide project undertaken by the International Iron & Steel Institute to provide reliable and transparent life-cycle data on a range of steel products. This study, which was extremely rigorous and in accordance with guidelines for LCA set out in ISO standards 14040 and 14041, was subjected to independent technical review.
LCA can also be used to assess the environmental implications when considering modifications to specific production processes as well as the general downstream environmental impacts of our products.
The durability of metallic coated steels and aluminium means that finished products made from those metals need not be replaced so frequently, thereby saving resources.
More about End of Lifecycle directives?
Look at the pages of the Oxford Brookes University
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