Life Cycle Analysis – A can of Coke
Unit 4: Environmental Management Systems August 25th, 2009
Life Cycle Analysis is a technique for assessing the potential and real environmental damage during all the stages of a product’s life – from ‘cradle’ to ‘grave’. It includes:
- material extraction and processing
- manufacturing
- distribution and packaging
- product use
- end of product life
A famous example was when the Coca Cola Company was trying to decide the most suitable packaging – glass or plastic. Sometimes the consumer may not be using the product in the way that the manufacture intended! Read how farmers in India use coca-cola as a pesticide. Annie Leonard describes the manufacturing process in “The Story of Stuff”.
