Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment is the most modern and advanced tool to describe the environmental impacts of a given choice for a product from cradle to grave.

LCA studies are widely used by politicians and environmentalists in order to provide the best possible information in the evaluation of environmental legislation and tax systems. Consequently, LCA studies must be in line with strict international standards in order to avoid manipulation by commercial or political interests.

A set of ISO standards, ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, has therefore been established, securing a high level of scientific reliability and peer review by independent researchers. Anyone who wants to base their recommendations or conclusions on LCA data should therefore make sure that the work in question is performed in accordance with these ISO standards.

In order to provide public decision makers with the best obtainable information to judge the environmental aspects of different kinds of scrap tyre disposal, Genan asked IFEU (Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung) in Heidelberg and the Copenhagen Resource Institute to work out an LCA study which compares the environmental impacts between recycling and incineration of tyres as well as civil engineering applications.