LCA

The major environmental objective of the European aluminium industry is to improve environmental performance through all stages of the life cycle of aluminium products. Environmental performance is being improved constantly throughout the whole production process and for end products by means of efficient use of resources and energy, reduction of emissions to air and water, reduction of waste. This is achieved by the improvement of existing technology, the development and introduction of new technologies and operations, increased recycling of all materials in the production process.

Increasing environmental awareness has led to greater use of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and studies. LCA provides the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products. LCA deals with product systems which comprise the full life cycle of a product, including raw material acquisition, fabrication, transportation, use, recycling/disposal and the related operations of energy supply, ancillary material supply and transport. ISO 14040 and 14044 standards define the rules and methodologies to consider and integrate properly all stages of the life cycle of a product.

The European Aluminium Association (EAA) is supporting this development by presenting reliable life cycle inventory (LCI) data for aluminium applications covering primary aluminium production, the fabrication of semi-finished aluminium products and the recycling of aluminium process and end-of-life scrap in the new Environmental Profile Report for the European Aluminium Industry (April 2008) which is available for download.

In addition, the European Aluminium Industry also contributes to the European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment which is developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. This LCA platform aims at integrating life cycle thinking into product development and into policy making using sound LCA methodologies based on ISO standards.