Life cycle assessment of thermoforming high impact polystyrene

Abstract

The aim of the project is to gain knowledge into different current LCA methodologies in hoping to understand and develop a systematic way of quantifying and qualifying product or process based on environmental impact. This dissertation discusses the overview of the LCA framework and its methodological concerns. The major components of LCA technical framework namely, goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation are described in detail. It also investigates how different approaches are used in practice. In the process of underlying difficulties of quantifying and qualifying values for the development of these methods, it was found that LCA methodology is built on many assumptions that make such investigations problematic.