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calculation production loss, waste treatment, recycling process

Written on: 26.02.2020#1

Author:
fc9270

Hello everybody, 
 
I am trying to create a LCA for a bed made out of cardboard. Therefore, I am calculating 5% material loss during production.
Therefore, I multiplied the input material (=linerboard) with 1,05 and added some existing flow called "waste paperboard, sorted" mulitplied by -0,05"--> so the mass balance is okay, but I am not sure if this flow "waste paperboard, sorted is the right one" because I chose the provider " treatment of waste paperboar, unsorted, sorting CH" but actually I am not sure if the ressourses needed to sort the material are now added to my LCA or not? 
 
Furthermore, my endproduct is a bed and after its use phase it can be completely reused, as it is just made of cardboard, I would like to add this recycling process, but I don't know how I have to do that. 
 
Please help me:)
 
Yours, Chiara  

Written on: 11.03.2020#2

Author:
Florentine Brunner

Dear Chiara,

 

Please mind that linerboard is only one material constituting corrugated board. Corrugated board is the material that we commonly know as carton in day to day applications, e.g. moving boxes. Two layers of linerboard with a layer of fluting medium in between (the wavy layer in the middle) compose corrugated board (see explanation and picture in the general comment of the linerboard dataset, as well as the corrugated boar box production). I am therefore guessing that corrugated board may be more suitable for your purpose, specifically the product “corrugated board box” (the relevant aspect here is that the 3 layers (2 linerboard + 1 fluting medium) were combined into plane board, and the were converted into a folded and possibly also printed item, here a box, but the shape shouldn’t make a difference in terms of impacts).

Your approach to treating the losses sounds like a plausible scenario.

Regarding the end of life, I am not sure if you are aiming at reuse or recycling. For the latter you can use the processes of secondary linerboard (testliner) or fluting medium (wellenstoff) production. In the case of reuse you would need to make your own scenario for a second usephase and the respective allocation between usephases.

 

Kind regards,

Florentine Brunner

Data Analyst, ecoinvent