Circular Economy For Dummies

Chapter 22

Ten Questions to Ask About Your Material Lifecycle

IN THIS CHAPTER

Mapping out the various stages of any material’s lifecycle

Identifying the potential environmental impacts along the way

Developing methods to lessen these negative impacts

Every material has what’s called a lifecycle. That is to say, every material has some type of birth (where it’s initially extracted, processed, manufactured, packaged, and delivered); it has a life (where it’s used, cleaned, maintained, and repaired); and it has a death (where it’s disposed of, repurposed, or reused). Every one of these stages has potentially negative environmental impacts, but the more you understand the lifecycle, the easier it to identify ways to improve it. (We cover this topic in more detail in Chapter 10.)

This chapter lists the questions you should be asking regarding your material in order to better understand the full picture of this lifecycle. By finding answers to these questions, you’ll be able to recognize the environmental impacts of each stage of your material's lifecycle and, more importantly, how to find ways to reduce or mitigate these negative impacts.

When we talk about materials, we might be talking ...