Why we value Life cycle of chemicals ?
The idea of life cycle assessment (LCA assessment) or LCA can be traced back to the 1960s. When environmental issues received increasing attention from the people and the government. The starting point can be attributed to growing environmental problems such as acid rain and smoke, which have been the result of a growing global population and rapid industrialization. Concerns about the scarcity of raw materials and energy resources have led to an increasing interest in finding ways to integrate energy consumption. One of the first studies in this field was conducted by a group of researchers at the American company Coca-Cola to compare the types of beverage containers to determine the type of container that has the least environmental release and has the least effect on the supply of natural resources
This study quantified the raw materials and fuels used as well as the environmental loads resulting from the production processes for each type of container. This study resulted in one of the main reasons for changing the company’s beverage containers from glass to plastic. Of course, this process of quantifying the use of resources and environmental releases was not a life cycle assessment, and basically at that time there was no such standard method as it is today, and this assessment was known as resource and environmental profile analysis
Life cycle assessment has a holistic approach, so that all the necessary inputs and releases are considered in many life cycle stages and operations within the system boundaries. The strength of the LCA is that it extends environmental concerns beyond a specific issue and seeks to address a wide range of environmental issues in a quantitative way for decision makers. A comprehensive view of the LCA is useful in preventing the displacement of the problem, for example from one LCA section to another, from one area to another, or from one environmental problem to another