<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The present work aims to analyse the environmental advantages of a production process that applies circular economy. The study examines a product that is generated through the use of a certain percentage of recovered secondary materials, thus helping to avoid impacts related to the disposal of these materials and preserving the ecosystems from indiscriminate excessive natural resources extraction. The product analysed is an ecological detergent (“Ri-Detersivo” – Re-Detergent), produced by the company Tea Natura, mainly composed of regenerated vegetable oils coming from food industry. The methodology used in this paper is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A partial LCA will be carried out here, arriving at the saponification phase, and comparing the environmental impacts deriving from the Re-Detergent production process with those of a traditional soap, comparable to that studied in terms of function. The analysis of the case study found that the use of regenerated vegetable oils for the production of soap allows to significantly reduce the environmental impacts compared to the use of coconut oil imported from third countries.</p></abstract>

The present work aims to analyse the environmental advantages of a production process that applies circular economy. The study examines a product that is generated through the use of a certain percentage of recovered secondary materials, thus helping to avoid impacts related to the disposal of these materials and preserving the ecosystems from indiscriminate excessive natural resources extraction. The product analysed is an ecological detergent (“Ri-Detersivo” – Re-Detergent), produced by the company Tea Natura, mainly composed of regenerated vegetable oils coming from food industry. The methodology used in this paper is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A partial LCA will be carried out here, arriving at the saponification phase, and comparing the environmental impacts deriving from the Re-Detergent production process with those of a traditional soap, comparable to that studied in terms of function. The analysis of the case study found that the use of regenerated vegetable oils for the production of soap allows to significantly reduce the environmental impacts compared to the use of coconut oil imported from third countries.

The Role of Environmental Evaluation within Circular Economy: An Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Method in the Detergents Sector

Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences

Environmental and Climate Technologies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The present work aims to analyse the environmental advantages of a production process that applies circular economy. The study examines a product that is...

The Role of Environmental Evaluation within Circular Economy: An Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Method in the Detergents Sector

Published Online: Nov 18, 2019

Page range: 238 - 257

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2019-0066

Keywords
Circular economy, detergents, ecological products, environmental sustainability, LCA, sustainable development

© 2019 Maria G. Lucchetti et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Role of Environmental Evaluation within Circular Economy: An Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Method in the Detergents Sector

Published Online: Nov 18, 2019

Page range: 238 - 257

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2019-0066

KeywordsCircular economy, detergents, ecological products, environmental sustainability, LCA, sustainable development

© 2019 Maria G. Lucchetti et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Circular economy, detergents, ecological products, environmental sustainability, LCA, sustainable development