Life Cycle Assessment & Recycling

2 min read · part of the full Exam Guide

Life cycle assessment

A life cycle assessment (LCA) assesses the environmental impact of a product at each stage of its life:
- Extracting and processing raw materials
- Manufacturing and packaging
- Use and operation during its lifetime
- Disposal at the end of its useful life
- Transport and distribution at every stage
Some things are easy to quantify: water used, resources, energy and the amount of waste
Others are not: giving a number to the effect of a pollutant needs a value judgement, so an LCA is not purely objective
A selective or abbreviated LCA looks at only some stages, and can be misused to reach a pre-decided conclusion, for example in advertising

Full Exam Guide

The rest of this topic is in the full Exam Guide

The complete AQA GCSE Chemistry guide — every topic, exam checklist and common mistake — is coming soon. Until then, the first topic in every unit is free to read.

In the full topic

Life cycle assessment
Comparing plastic and paper bags
Reducing the use of resources

Read the free chemistry topics →