Ranking of Industrial Products
1 Method description1.1 Principles and philosophy1.1.1 Background 1.1.2 Philosophy 1.1.3 Assessment principle 1.2 Division of industrial products in commodity groups 1.3 Quantity data 1.4 Assessment of the composition of the commodity groups 1.5 Resource and energy data 1.5.1 Resource data 1.5.2 Energy data 1.6 Environmentally harmful substances 1.1 Principles and philosophy1.1.1 BackgroundPilot project This project is based on the considerations of the pilot project called "Environmental impact of industrial products" ("Industriprodukters Miljøbelastning") (cf. /2/). The objective of this pilot project was to develop a methodology to estimate the environmental impact by industrial products to enable identification of the type of products causing the most serious environmental impact through their entire life cycle. The pilot project and thus also this project are an attempt to concretize the thoughts expressed in the action plan for cleaner technology of the Ministry of the Environment /1/. Whereas up till now the environmental measures taken have focused primarily on the pollution from manufacture activities, the future measures will be more focused on industrial products and the environmental impact related to the entire life cycle of industrial products, i.e. from extraction of raw materials to disposal of discarded products. The efforts taken to identify a method for ranking industrial products based on their environmental impact are based on the fact that the funds available in the Danish society are not unlimited. It is consequently both necessary and appropriate to focus the measures to be taken on the types of industrial products that are especially harmful to the environment. The pilot project included an assessment of relevant environmental relations of an industrial product throughout its life cycle (cf. fig. 1.1) and the possibilities of obtaining data on these environmental relations and the related measures. A proposal for various methods of ranking industrial products was made. It was estimated (cf. /2/) that the possible ranking methods can be divided in three levels that are clearly different as to the method accuracy/information value and the workload required by applying the method. These levels are as follows: Level 1: Quantities only. A ranking of industrial products can be carried out based exclusively on the quantities (in weight) of the products consumed or produced in Denmark. This level can only be considered an indication of the actual environmental problems. The criterion will be inaccurate and unreasonable, as e.g. foodstuffs, paper and wood-based products will rank highly, even though these products exclusively or mostly consist of renewable materials. Furthermore, it is not possible to consider the energy consumption of the industrial products during their use phase, even though this consumption has a crucial importance to the total energy consumption of products using energy in their use phase. The required work to be performed applying this method was estimated at 2.5 to 3.5 man months excluding computer activities. Level 2: Loss of resources and energy consumption. A better ranking is achieved by estimating the loss of resources and the energy consumption of industrial products. The loss of resources is a goal for consumption of the natural resources, but also indirectly an expression of an environmental impact (diffuse pollution etc.) The energy consumption will be an indicator of the greenhouse effect and the acidification, as these environmental impacts are mainly emissions to the air at energy transformation (e.g. coal to electricity). Other environmental problems will however not be included in the ranking. The required work to be performed by applying the method was estimated at 40 to 61 man months excluding computer activities. Level 3: All environmental problems. At this level efforts are made to achieve detailed knowledge of the life cycle of all materials contained in industrial products. It should thus be possible to estimate loss of resources and energy consumption, as well as other environmental impacts, such as greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, dispersion of heavy metals and persistent organic matters and other local impacts (dust, noise, carcinogenic substances etc.) The ranking is possible by means of a scoring system or various ways of quantification. The workload was assessed considerable (100 man months as a minimum) and of a level only justifiable, if for other reasons there is a need for developing actual environmental profiles for specific materials. The project described in this report has applied the above ranking method designated "level 2". This level is considered the optimal level based on a balancing of accuracy/information value versus workload of a method to include all industrial products (finished goods) sold in Denmark. 1.1.2 PhilosophyDefinition of an industrial product An industrial product is here defined as "an article that has been through a working-up process characterised as a mass production, and the further use of which does not involve additional industrial joining or processing". Thus, articles like crude oil, iron bars, potatoes, electronic components and gravel are not considered industrial products, whereas petrol, machines, ready-made casseroles, computers and concrete elements are. Defined in this way industrial products correspond to finished goods, whereas raw materials and semi-manufactures are not considered industrial products. The reasonability of this definition is based on the view that measures to reduce the environmental impact of industrial products must be based on the finished goods - not on the raw materials and semi-manufactures that are merely production stages of the finished goods. It must be admitted however that the definition is not unambiguous, as many articles can be used as semi-manufactures as well as finished goods. It should be noted that the definition also excludes finished goods made as handicraft. This is considered acceptable, as the quantities produced of those articles are very modest compared to industrial products. Therefore the environmental impact of the handicraft is considered marginal compared to that of industrial products. Also it should be noted that in this project report the designation industrial product means the product including packaging, spare parts and working means, if any, used during the entire life cycle of the product.
Fig. 1.1 Environmental relations of an industrial product during its life cycle (principle) The grounds for this choice are that packaging, working means and spare parts are actually an integrated part of the industrial product and consequently must be included to enable a just comparison of various industrial products. In practice the term industrial product covers a very large quantity of different articles. The commodity statistics of Statistics Denmark based on the commodity tariff of the Central Customs and Tax Administration /3/ include approx. 10,000 tariff numbers. As most of these tariff numbers include many different types of goods, the categorization of the statistics in itself is a significant simplification of reality. Furthermore, there is the large number of environmental relations (cf. fig. 1.1) occurring in the life cycle of an industrial product and the complexity of such life cycles. Although it is theoretically possible to analyse the life cycles and all the environmental relations of all industrial products, this would practically be an overwhelming task. These conditions mean that any method to estimate the environmental impact of all industrial products during their life cycles must necessarily simplify reality and focus on indicator parameters in preference to covering the total environmental impact. This is considered acceptable, as the purpose of the ranking of industrial products is to identify the types of industrial products for which there is a need for further measures to be taken, including additional investigations. This ranking is not to be considered a final evaluation. Philosophy The principal philosophy behind the method applied in this project is as follows:
Materials As it appears the term material is a key element of this project. This term is chosen as an expression of the "building stones" of which industrial products are composed. Actually materials are an intermediate stage between substances and products - an intermediate stage, which cannot be defined unambiguously, but is meaningful all the same. There are two reasons why the term materials cannot be defined unambiguously. One is that materials normally cover material compounds that are not unambiguously defined chemically. As a commercial product, e.g. iron is not a chemically clean material, but a mixture of several substances, of which some have been added deliberately (alloy components), whereas other substances are natural impurities. Thus the material low alloy carbon steel covers a long series of material compounds with the common characteristics that the dominant component of the material is iron. Correspondingly, the material PVC - besides the PVC molecules - will normally also contain many different additives, such as dyes, flame retardants, UV stabilizers etc. to a varying extent. The other reason is that in several cases it is difficult to distinguish between materials and industrial products. Parallel to the comments on semi-manufactures versus finished goods (see above) several materials can be considered industrial products themselves. This applies especially to chemical products like paint, solvents etc., but also to materials like glass and paper etc. In section 1.4 is stated the materials applied in this project and the considerations behind the choices made. That the environmental impact of the industrial products to a wide extent is related to the materials contained in the products, is due to the following
Naturally industrial products also cause environmental impacts that are related to the product rather than the applied materials. This is mainly about the energy consumption and the consumption of various chemical substances for the use of the industrial product, but also the environmental impact made in connection with the disposal/recycling of the product. In this project is focused on loss of resources and energy consumption as indicator parameters of the total environmental impact. The choice of these indicator parameters was made, because they are considered representative of a significant part of the total environmental impact - combined with the assessment that it is relatively easy to estimate these parameters for all industrial products. It is emphasised that this choice is not an indication that the other environmental impacts are considered insignificant. It is just relatively difficult and requires therefore a considerable workload to estimate data of these aspects. For a more detailed discussion of this issue reference is made to /2/. In the following the chosen indicator parameters are described briefly: Loss of resources Each material can be considered a resource in itself. This resource is used for manufacturing of industrial products. Throughout the life cycle of an industrial product the resource will be lost entirely or partly: The material end up in landfill sites, is spread diffusely in the surroundings or transformed. Consequently it is relevant to talk of a loss of resources. This loss of resources varies from one material to another and will to a certain extent also be dependent on the industrial product the material is part of. In all phases of the life cycle of an industrial product waste will be produced and thus there will be a loss of resources (cf. fig. 1.1). Here is only the loss of resources occurring in the distribution, consumption and recycling/disposal phases estimated - thus the loss of resources through the raw material and production phases and the loss of resources related to infrastructure, manufacture of production equipment etc. are ignored (cf. /2/). The reason for this choice is that the loss of resources in the distribution, consumption and recycling/disposal phases can relatively easily be calculated by estimating the part of the individual materials in an industrial product that will be collected for recycling (only recycling of materials is included - not recycling of products, cf. 1.5.1). On the other hand it would be difficult and a large workload to collect data of the loss of resources in the raw material and production phases. Unfortunately no knowledge is available today that would enable a precise assessment of the importance of this choice. In the pilot project /2/ it is assessed (a rough assessment) that the loss of resources throughout the distribution, consumption and recycling/disposal phases represents 30 - 70% of the total loss of resources. These assessments are to be understood as follows: The lower limit of 30% corresponds to valuable materials (e.g. heavy metals) with a high degree of recycling, whereas the upper limit corresponds to materials that are non-recyclable (e.g. thermoset plastics). The choice of only including the loss of resources throughout the distribution, consumption and recycling/disposal phases (rather than including the loss of resources throughout the entire life cycle) means that industrial products with a low content of recyclable materials are ranked higher here (i.e. achieve a relatively larger loss of resources compared to other products) than would be the case, if the calculation of the loss of resources were based on the total loss of resources throughout the entire life cycle. Contrary to that, industrial products with a large part of recyclable materials would here be ranked lower than would be the case, if the calculation of the loss of resources were based on the total loss of resources throughout the entire life cycle. This systematic error in connection with the ranking method is however not of any decisive importance - taking the other uncertainties of the ranking into consideration (cf. 2.2). At the assessment of the loss of resources it was distinguished whether the material was renewable or non-renewable. A renewable material is a material that is recreated naturally within the measurable future. A definition of the measurable future is disputable. In this report all vegetable and animal materials and water are considered renewable materials, whereas all mineral and oil based materials, i.e. materials based on geological resources are considered non-renewable. The relevance of distinguishing between renewable and non-renewable materials is of course that a non-renewable material in principle can be used up, and thus is a resource that in the interest of the community is worth economizing on - more than a renewable material. An objection to this is e.g. that iron ending up in landfill sites or is spread diffusely in nature and here is considered a loss of resources, in fact is not lost, but recoverable, which means that it should be appropriate to consider iron a renewable material. This argument is however only partially correct. It is correct that e.g. iron will never be lost completely. In principle it is possible to recover iron from seawater or other parts of nature, where it ends. The related energy consumption is however significantly larger than the energy consumption related to production of iron today. The discussion is introduced here to stress the close connection between the state of the material of being renewable/non-renewable and the process of manufacture - and the related energy consumption - of the material. That a material like iron is assessed to be non-renewable is an expression of the fact that the present manufacture of pig iron is based on geological occurrences that are non-restorable within the measurable future. As a parallel it can be noted that in this project plastic materials are assessed to be non-renewable materials, as the manufacture of plastic materials is today based on crude oil or natural gas that are geological resources that are non-restorable within the measurable future. In principle it would however not be difficult to manufacture plastic materials (and other petrochemical products) from vegetable raw materials. Such production does not take place today, as it would be too expensive and require too much energy. If - or rather when - the production of plastic materials is changed and becomes based on vegetable raw materials, the state of these materials would change to becoming renewable. Unfortunately even renewable materials can be used up by heavy exploitation. This question is today primarily relevant to tropical tree species, fish and similar marine products. The principle point of view adopted in this project is that a renewable material that is not recreated concurrently with its use should be handled with the same care as non-renewable materials by the community. In connection with non-renewable materials it would be relevant to continuously supervise the reserves of the resource, estimate when they will come to an end, how easily they are replaceable and thus the social value of the resource. These aspects of the resource problematic are not assessed in this project, partly because there is no clear definition of when a resource is exhausted (such a definition requires a decision of the acceptable energy consumption for extraction of the material from other sources), and partly because the necessary workload to estimate this aspect for all materials would be considerable. By the ranking, the same value has thus been assigned to all materials. In connection with the assessment of the results of the project, it must of course be evaluated whether the loss of a ton of sand and gravel should be considered just as important as the loss of a ton of copper. Energy consumption There is energy consumption throughout the entire life cycle of an industrial product, both at extraction and manufacture of materials, at processing of these materials, at the use of the industrial product (only certain products) and by the recycling/disposal of the industrial product. In itself energy is one of the most important resources of the community. Other things being equal it is therefore in the interest of the community to minimise the consumption of energy for industrial products. Besides this, the energy consumption could be regarded as a measure of a series of other essential environmental problems, such as acidification and greenhouse effect that are in a very high degree related to the acid gasses and CO2 released in connection with the use of fossil fuels. Based on an assessment of how easy it is to procure/estimate data of the various parts of the energy consumption and the importance of the various parts of the total consumption (cf. /2), the energy consumption is in this project calculated as follows:
The elements of the total energy consumption throughout the life cycle of an industrial product that are not included, are the consumption through the distribution, recycling and the disposal phases and the energy consumption related to infrastructure and manufacture of production equipment. Furthermore, the energy consumption of the final assembly and finish of the finished goods will only be included to the extent the consumption is included in the estimates of the energy consumption for extraction, manufacture and processing of the materials that are available. On the basis of the available data the exact importance of these choices is not possible to assess. In the pilot project /2/ it is roughly estimated that the energy consumption for extraction, manufacture and processing of materials together with the energy consumption during the use phase of industrial products are 70 - 90% of the total energy consumption. It should be noted that the calculations made during the EDIP project (Environmental Design of Industrial Products) have shown that for industrial products requiring energy by its use, this energy consumption will typically be decisive for the size of the total energy consumption /2/. Furthermore it should be noted at the calculation of the energy consumption for extraction, manufacture and processing of combustible materials also includes energy content of the materials. The argument of this choice is that the combustible materials used for industrial products alternatively could have been used as an energy source. As they are used for manufacture of industrial products, energy is occupied and consumed. 1.1.3 Assessment principleRanking method The ranking method used in this project divides the industrial products in commodity groups. Loss of resources and energy consumption are calculated for each commodity group. Then all commodity groups are ranked both to loss of resources and to energy consumption. The contents of these two ranking lists are finally collected in one list, in which the average ranking of each commodity group is calculated. By calculation of the final ranking, the two parameters are balanced evenly (no arguments justifying that one of the parameters is more important than the other, are known. The loss of resources is in this context (cf. the previous section) defined as the quantity of materials in a commodity group that is not recycled, because the materials end up as waste that is disposed of or incinerated, or because the materials during their use are spread diffusely to the surroundings as a result of wear, corrosion or the like. Loss of renewable materials that are recreated concurrently with their use is however not included in the loss of resources. The energy consumption is correspondingly - in this context - defined as the energy consumption used for extraction, manufacture and processing of the materials in the commodity group, plus the energy latent in these materials (if relevant), plus the energy consumption during the use phase (if relevant), minus the amount of energy recovered by incineration of the loss of resources. The calculation of the loss of resources for each commodity group presupposes knowledge of the quantities of each commodity group sold annually in Denmark and knowledge of the composition of the materials in each commodity group. The calculation principle is summarized in box 1.1. Correction factor It should be noted that information of quantities in principle is based on information from Statistics Denmark (cf. 1.2). This information includes exclusively the net weight of industrial products, i.e. excluding any kind of packaging. As the composition of the commodity group is calculated as the composition during the life cycle of the products, i.e. including packaging, working means and spare parts, it has in connection with the calculations been necessary to define a special correction factor (K) for each commodity group. This correction factor has been identified as the relation between the weight of the industrial products including packaging/working means/spare parts and the weight of the industrial products alone. Assessment of results At the final assessment of the results of this ranking it is important to be aware that the ranking does not consider all environmental impacts related to industrial products. At the final ranking of industrial products it would be relevant to include the knowledge available of the release of chemical substances to the environment in connection with production activities in Denmark and also consider to what extent the different industrial products contain especially environmentally harmful substances. A consideration of such conditions might of course at some points result in a deviation of the final ranking compared to the ranking of this project. Environmentally harmful substances With a view to these ranking considerations it is found relevant within the scope of this project to assess and state whether de individual commodity groups contain selected, particularly environmentally harmful substances. The principles and the scope of this assessment are described in detail in section 1.6. Box 1.1 Calculation principles
1.2 Division of industrial products in commodity groupsSupply statistics The division of industrial products into commodity groups was made on the basis of "Statistics Denmark‘s" commodity supply statistics. These statistics are prepared by Statistics Denmark by combining the foreign trade statistics with commodity statistics for the Danish industry. With a few exceptions the tariff numbers applied in the supply statistics correspond to the tariff numbers applied in the foreign trade statistics and the goods statistics for industry. The exceptions in question concern the following commodities/industrial products:
The supply statistics are not published, but extracts are obtainable from Statistics Denmark. In connection with this project Statistics Denmark have supplied extracts of the statistics - data of production, exports, imports and supply for all tariff numbers in the statistics based on 1992-data. These extracts are the basis for the division of tariff numbers in commodity groups described in the following. Division procedure and rules The supply statistics contain in total 30,376 tariff numbers (version May 1993) divided in 97 commodity chapters. These tariff numbers were treated as follows: Tariff numbers assessed to include only raw materials, semi-manufactures or handicrafts were as a principal rule sorted out (cf. 1.1). Examples of handicraft are jewellery and basketwork. 3,729 tariff numbers in total were sorted out in this basis. However many semi-manufactures are also to rather a wide extent used as finished goods (e.g. materials for construction; in this project construction is not considered an industrial process). Additionally there is environmental focus on a series of semi-manufactures (e.g. tyres). Consequently it was decided to keep many semi-manufactures in the ranking system. The assessment criterion here was whether the semi-manufactured article in question was considered having a certain importance as an individual article. It was a calculated choice to rather sort out too little than too much. The disadvantage of this method is of course that certain materials are included in more than one commodity group. For example copper wire might be included as pure copper wire, as copper in an electromotor and as copper in the machine in which the electromotor is installed. This disadvantage is considered acceptable here. Tariff numbers that have not been sorted out are hereafter divided in commodity groups according to the following rules:
In total 966 commodity groups with 6,647 tariff numbers were established. Of these "miscellaneous-groups" include in total 66 commodity groups with 1,532 tariff numbers in total. Table 1.1 provides an overview of the division of tariff numbers in the individual commodity chapters. The precise division appears from appendices 3 and 4. Appendix 3 is a systematic list of all tariff numbers in the supply statistics, in which the related commodity group is stated off each individual tariff number, or it is informed whether the number alternatively has been sorted out as raw material/semi-manufactured article etc. Appendix 4 is a systematic list of all commodity groups, in which the tariff numbers related to each individual commodity group are stated. Assessment of division It is stressed that the actual division of a series of groups appears to be a compromise between the stated rules, and especially between the rules 2, 3 and 6. Confidential tariff numbers are thus deliberately grouped in a few commodity groups, irrespective of the fact that they do not meet the requirements of homogeneity. As the division appears today (cf. appendices 3 and 4), it is the assessment of the author that it is useful for this project, but not necessarily optimal in all details. Threshold values As to the rule of threshold values (rule no. 4) it should be noted that this rule was made on the basis of the awareness that many industrial products are sold in quantities so modest that it can be immediately assessed that the ranking of these products will be very low. On the basis of information from Statistics Denmark /3/ it is known that the average supply in 1992 of all tariff numbers in the supply statistics exceeds 5,300 t, whereas the supply of at least 24% of all the tariff numbers in 1992 did not exceed 100 t. Many industrial products that are only sold in modest quantities are special products that are difficult to group together with other products sold in large quantities and consequently to a wide extent must be placed in their own commodity groups. Without a kind of threshold value it would be an unreasonably large share of the total workload invested in this project that would be used to clarify the material composition of commodity groups, the environmental impact of which is relatively modest.
Table 1.1 Overview of the division of commodity numbers in the individual commodity chapters *1) Com-modity chapter No. Title Number of tariff numbers in total Number of tariff numbers in commodity groups Number of tariff numbers sorted out Number of tariff numbers in misc. group Number of commodity groups 1 Live animals 40 0 40 0 0 2 Meat and edible offal 264 195 69 0 6 3 Fish and crustacean 308 235 73 0 4 4 Milk and dairy products 154 101 53 3 11 5 Misc. products of animal origin 26 0 26 0 0 6 Live trees and other plants 61 0 61 0 0 7 Edible vegetables 119 25 94 0 2 8 Edible fruits and nuts 133 14 119 0 2 9 Coffee, tea and spices 54 9 45 5 3 10 Corn 57 28 29 0 1 11 Milling products; malt, starch etc. 76 34 42 2 3 12 Oilseed and oily fruit 101 4 97 0 1 13 Plant juices and extracts; shellac, natural resin etc. 17 0 17 0 0 14 Vegetable materials for basketwork etc. 11 0 11 0 0 15 Animal and vegetable oils and fats 137 24 113 13 4 16 Refined articles of meat, fish and crustacean 107 107 0 13 14 17 Sugar and sweets 47 21 26 1 9 18 Cocoa and articles prepared of cocoa 26 11 15 0 5 19 Articles prepared of corn, flour etc., cakes and biscuits 48 44 4 5 14 20 Articles of vegetables, fruit, nuts etc. 263 225 38 58 13 21 Misc. products from the foodstuff industry 44 40 4 6 17 22 Beverages, ethanole, vinegar 110 110 0 4 16 23 Residues and waste products from the foodstuff industry 68 68 0 6 10 24 Tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes 30 8 22 1 4 25 Salt, sulphur, soil and stone types, typsum, lime, cement etc. 98 38 60 2 12 26 Ores, slag and ashes 51 0 51 0 0 27 Mineral fuel, mineral oils etc. 102 53 49 7 14 28 Inorganic chemicals etc. 258 36 222 7 16 Table 1.1 Overview of the division of commodity numbers in the individual commodity chapters (continued) *1) Com-modity chapter No. Title Number of tariff numbers in total Number of tariff numbers in commodity groups Number of tariff numbers sorted out Number of tariff numbers in misc. group Number of commodity groups 29 Organic chemicals 458 55 403 3 6 30 Pharmaceutical products 70 49 21 34 10 31 Fertilizers 40 40 0 1 6 32 Tanning and dye extracts 75 27 48 0 6 33 Volatile vegetable oils; perfumery and cosmetics 56 21 35 6 10 34 Soap, detergents, cleaning materials, lubricants etc. 33 29 4 0 9 35 Proteins, starch, glue, paste and enzyms 34 3 31 0 2 36 Gunpowder and other explosives 10 10 0 6 5 37 Photographic and cinematographic goods 65 65 0 1 4 38 Miscellaneous chemical products 98 46 52 6 28 39 Plastic and articles thereof 259 171 88 2 37 40 Rubber and articles thereof 98 61 37 9 20 41 Hide, skin and leather 64 0 64 0 0 42 Leather articles, upholstery etc. 43 43 0 20 8 43 Fur and fur articles 44 4 40 4 1 44 Wood and wooden articles 171 133 38 8 27 45 Cork and cork articles 8 6 2 0 2 46 Basketwork and other articles of weave materials 13 0 13 0 0 47 Pulp of wood etc.; paper and cardboard waste 23 0 23 0 0 48 Paper, cardboard and articles thereof 205 173 32 0 18 49 Books, papers, pictures and other printed matters 28 28 0 9 6 50 Real silk 25 17 8 17 1 51 Wool and fine and coarse animal hair 71 30 41 16 3 52 Cotton 178 120 58 1 6 53 Other vegetable textile fibres 51 13 38 13 1 54 Endless chemical fibres 106 52 54 12 8 55 Short chemical fibres 168 102 66 49 11 56 Cotton, felt, fibre cloth; twine, rope and cordage 60 59 1 28 14 57 Carpets and other textile flooring 47 47 0 10 12 Table 1.1 Overview of the division of commodity numbers in the individual commodity chapters (continued) *1) Com-modity chapter No. Title Number of tariff numbers in total Number of tariff numbers in commodity groups Number of tariff numbers sorted out Number of tariff numbers in misc. group Number of commodity groups 58 Special, woven fabrics; laces, embroideries etc. 57 21 36 21 1 59 Impregnated and coated textiles 46 15 31 9 5 60 Knitted fabric 55 55 0 17 6 61 Clothes of knitted fabric 175 175 0 112 18 62 Clothes of other than knitted fabric 225 225 0 156 22 63 Other factory-tailored textiles 88 83 5 42 12 64 Footwear, spats etc. and accessories 84 80 4 19 10 65 Headgear and accessories 18 15 3 13 2 66 Umbrellas, parasols, sticks, whips etc. 8 5 3 1 3 67 Processed feathers and downs, artificial flowers etc. 8 6 2 4 2 68 Articles of stone, gipsum, cement, asbestos and similar materials 68 68 0 8 18 69 Ceramics 52 52 0 0 10 70 Glass and glassware 158 102 56 0 11 71 Natural or cultured pearls, precious stones and metals etc. 71 26 45 26 1 72 Iron and steel 482 147 335 18 17 73 Articles of iron and steel 278 278 0 27 25 74 Copper and articles thereof 78 53 25 0 7 75 Nickel and articles thereof 18 11 7 0 1 76 Aluminium and articles thereof 72 64 8 0 8 78 Lead and articles thereof 14 6 8 1 2 79 Zinc and articles thereof 15 7 8 0 2 80 Tin and articles thereof 9 5 4 0 1 81 Other base metals, ceramic metals and articles thereof 65 29 36 1 5 82 Tools, cutlery of base metals 126 126 0 34 11 83 Miscellaneous articles of base metals 52 44 8 9 17 84 Nuclear reactors, steam boilers, machines and apparatus 1008 803 205 148 107 Table 1.1 Overview of the division of commodity numbers in the individual commodity chapters (continued) *1). Com-modity chapter No. Title Number of tariff numbers in total Number of tariff numbers in commodity groups Number of tariff numbers sorted out Number of tariff numbers in misc. group Number of commodity groups 85 Electrical machines and apparatus 640 470 170 88 68 86 Engines, carriages, goods wagons and other railway material 45 18 27 4 9 87 Vehicles and parts for them 193 113 80 12 17 88 Aircrafts, space crafts and parts for them 30 21 9 19 2 89 Ships, boats and floating material 45 44 1 5 13 90 Optical, photographic instruments and apparatus 278 276 2 191 27 91 Watches and parts for them 72 72 0 72 1 92 Musical instruments, parts and accessories 34 34 0 33 2 93 Weapons, ammunition, parts and accessories 37 37 0 25 4 94 Furniture, bedding, lamps and lighting accessories 95 76 19 5 20 95 Toys, games and sports equipment 79 76 3 24 23 96 Miscellaneous articles and products 77 75 2 0 14 97 Works of art, collector‘s items, antiques 7 0 7 0 0 99 Confidential consignments, returns 3 0 3 0 0 Sum 10376 6647 3729 1532 966 Note: It is therefore considered acceptable in this project to introduce threshold values and include tariff numbers within the stated threshold values in special "misc." commodity groups, the composition of which is not investigated in this project (cf. 1.4). This procedure has the advantage that the tariff numbers in question are still part of the ranking system, and that it is consequently relatively easy to make a more precise assessment of the industrial products in question, if it is considered relevant at a later time. The choice of threshold value was determined on the basis of an assessment of data from Statistics Denmark - an assessment of the share of the total goods volume (production or import - 1992 data) that will end up in a "miscellaneous" commodity group at various threshold values. At this assessment, threshold values of 50, 100 and 500 tonnes were estimated. The result of this investigation was that at a threshold value of 100 t, 8 commodity chapters would be affected so much that 50% of the total goods volume (production or imports) would end up in the "misc." group. For a further 31 commodity chapters between 10 and 50% of the total goods volume would end up in the "misc." group, whereas less than 10% of the total goods volume would be affected in connection with the other goods articles. The commodity chapters that are affected considerably (>50% of the goods volume in the "misc." group) are chapter 43 (fur), chapter 50 (real silk), chapter 53 (other vegetable textile fibres than cotton), chapter 71 (pearls, precious stones and metals) and chapter 90-93 (optical and photographic instruments, watches, musical instruments and weapons). It is common for these chapters that they include many different industrial products that are only sold in modest quantities. Numbering of commodity groups All commodity groups have been assigned a five-figure number. The two first figures correspond to the number of the commodity chapter in questions, whereas the three last figures are a serial number within the chapter in question. If a "misc." group has been established in a commodity chapter, this group will always be assigned the number "xx001" in which xx may vary from number 01 to 97. In the applied systematic the number "xx001" is only used for "misc." Thus, this number is not applied in commodity chapters in which no "misc." group has been established. 1.3 Quantity dataAs stated in section 1.1 the calculations of both loss of recourses and energy consumption of the individual commodity groups are based on the quantity of products measured in tonnes/year sold in Denmark. In practice it has been chosen to base the calculations (cf. appendices 1a and 2) on the mean value of production and supply in Denmark, as the supply is defined as production plus imports minus exports. It is to be seen as a pragmatic way of solving the problem that the impact of the various industrial products on the environment is quite different. Denmark is a large-scale exporter of certain industrial products, i.e. that the Danish production is significantly larger than the imports to the Danish market. This applies to e.g. refrigerators, district heating pipes, chewing gum, plastic toys etc. From this type of industrial product the environmental impact may be much more serious in the production phase than during the consumption and disposal phases. On the contrary, there are industrial products that by and large are not manufactured in Denmark, but imported. A typical example is cars. For this type of products the impact on the Danish environment is alone related to the use and disposal of these products (presupposed that transboundary water and air pollution is not taken into consideration). Additionally, calculations based on supply data alone (cf. appendix 1b) have however been made. The result of these calculations shows that the ranking of commodity groups is not changed significantly, when it is based on supply data solely instead of the mean value of production and supply. Information about production and supply of all commodity groups was procured mainly from Statistics Denmark, as mean data of the years 1990 to 1992 have been applied in order to avoid incidental variations in production and supply. Statistics Denmark have calculated the mean value of production and supply for each tariff number and subsequently summed up the figures within each commodity group. The statistic information known and applied in this project is thus in principle limited to the sum of production and supply of all tariff numbers within a commodity group. It should be noted that mean values during three years are not likely to eliminate incidental variations of industrial products like ships, trains and aircrafts. In connection with these types of products, incidental variations can only be balanced by applying average data of 10 years. This has not been done in this project, and quantity data of these types of industrial products are consequently subject to a higher uncertainty than the other commodity groups. In connection with a small part of the tariff numbers the process encountered some technical problems that made it necessary to introduce special procedures or special rules. This was necessary in the following cases: 1) The calculated supply of a tariff number is negative In some cases the supply of a tariff number is negative. This was observed in connection with several tariff numbers in the supply statistics for 1992. A clarification of the cause for each tariff number was not attempted, but it is judged that in principle there may be the following causes: a) Production and/or imports are entirely or partly registered with other tariff numbers than exports b) Production and/or imports are entirely or partly registered in another year than exports. As to cause a) it is assessed that it is a kind of "statistical confusion" caused by the reporting procedure of the statistical data that cannot be avoided. As regards cause b) these are natural variations, which are probably to a wide extent eliminated in this project, because the calculation of production and supply data is based on mean values for 3 years. Regardless of the actual cause that the supply is negative, the following rule is applied: If the supply of a tariff number - used as a mean value during the period of 1990 to 1992 - is negative, the supply is put as zero in the calculation. Thus it is avoided that "statistical confusion" and natural variations of a tariff number affect the quantity data of other tariff number in the same commodity group. 2) Production data are not informed in tonnes, but only in value (DKK) and other measures (numbers, litres, square metres, pairs or the like) This is the case in connection with a series of tariff numbers dealing with industrial products, for which another measure than weight is used traditionally. Examples are tyres, bags, shoes, acetic acid, furniture etc. In these cases the information in the foreign trade statistics of quantities in tonnes - besides information of value and other measures - has been utilised. By assuming that the weight per value unit or other measure is the same for Danish production and imports/exports, the weight of the Danish production can be estimated. The estimation of these data has been carried out by Statistics Denmark, as data of the value of exports have been used for estimation of the Danish production primarily. For a few industrial products it has however not been possible to apply this procedure, as no imports/exports of one or more of the years 1990 to 1992 have been registered for these products. The product types and commodity groups in question are the following: Group 49001, tariff 4911.00.00.0: Photosensitive paper and cardboard For these tariff numbers the quantities have been estimated to the same principles as stated for confidential quantity information (cf. point 3). It should be noted that as regards naval vessels and photosensitive paper, these are quantities of a size that should not have been included in "misc." groups. Unfortunately the precise information was not available until at a time, when it was no longer possible to adjust the commodity group division. 3) Information of quantity, value and other measures of production and/or imports and/or exports is confidential For a series of tariff numbers the information of Danish production, imports or exports are entirely confidential. This confidentiality can be achieved by a Danish enterprise by contacting Statistics Denmark and applying for it, if the applying enterprise holds an essential part of the trade within the tariff number in question. In this project it has been necessary to procure information of Danish production and supply for all tariff numbers, as these quantity data are included in the calculations. At the composition of commodity groups it was strived at gathering confidential tariff numbers to the widest possible extent, so that at least three confidential tariff numbers are included in a commodity group. In this way the confidentiality of the sum of the quantity information of the tariff numbers in question is lifted in principle, as it is impossible for outsiders to calculate the value of an individual tariff number on the basis of these sums. In some cases it was however only possible to include 1 or 2 confidential tariff numbers in the same commodity group. In those cases the information of the other tariff numbers in the commodity group was procured from Statistics Denmark, whereas for the confidential number an assessment of production and supply was made. These assessments are based partly on information from the Danish enterprises trading within the tariff numbers in question, and partly on data from literature or statistical information combined with common sense. Table 1.2 Table 1.2 Commodity groups containing tariff numbers in connection with which it has been necessary to assess the quantity data
Generally the assessments are conservative, i.e. higher than the real values. This choice is based on the argument that the fact that the information is confidential does not mean that the environmental impact of the industrial products in question is underestimated. However there is deliberately no particular systematic as to how much the values have been increased compared to the real ones. Thus it should not be possible to estimate the true figures for a confidential tariff number on the basis of the quantity data stated in this project. Especially it should be noted that in cases in which information of exports is confidential, and it has not been possible relatively easily to assess the size of these exports, the exports were conservatively stated as being zero. Table 1.2 shows the commodity groups including confidential tariff numbers, for which it was necessary to assess the quantity data. Table 1.3 4) Statistical information for 1992 is more detailed than for 1990 and 1991 It has not been possible to calculate mean values of the period 1990 to 1992 for a series of tariff numbers. This concerns the tariff numbers in connection with which Statistics Denmark have applied another and/or more detailed division in 1992 than in 1990 and 1991, and in connection with which the tariff number at the commodity group division in this project were distributed into different commodity groups. The reason for the problem is that the commodity division was made based on the supply statistics for 1992 and thus has not allowed for the changes in the use of tariff numbers that were made from 1990 and 1991 to 1992. The optimal solution of the problem would therefore be an adjustment of the commodity group division. For temporal and other practical reasons it was chosen to base the calculations for the tariff number in question on 1992 data exclusively. Table 1.3 shows a list of the tariff numbers concerned. 1.4 Assessment of the composition of the commodity groupsAs mentioned in section 1.1.2 the composition of an "average product" for the commodity group in question was estimated, as packaging and consumption of working means and spare parts throughout the life cycle of the product are considered an integrated part of the product. These estimates were made on the basis of information from Danish manufacturers and importers, centres of research and knowledge, literature etc. combined with own assessments and measurements. The basis for the estimates as well as the applied information sources for each commodity group is stated in appendix 5. Assessment of material composition The typical process in connection with assessment of material composition was as follows:
In the cases, in which the commodity groups is not homogeneous, i.e. the group is composed by different products of different material composition, or in which the same product in practice is produced from different materials, the material composition of typical examples of the different product types is estimated. Thereafter the material composition of an "average product" was calculated by weighting the product types in question in relation to their estimated market share. It was aimed to achieve information of the material composition of industrial products within a commodity group from at least two independent sources, e.g. two manufacturers. In the cases in which the market is dominated by one manufacturer only, and it was possible to obtain information from this manufacturer, one reference was however considered sufficient. It is stressed that in these cases the obtained information was the manufacturer‘s opinion of the material composition of an "average product" of the commodity group, which is not necessarily identical with the manufacturer‘s own products. Own measurements and assessments might have been used to clarify the composition of consumer goods (e.g. the weight of buttons on a shirt) or the composition and weight of packaging compared to the real product. The share of surface treatment materials (e.g. paint, galvanisation) might be based on an estimate of the area that is treated multiplied by the typical layer/thickness of such surfaces. At the listing of the material composition it was distinguished between the materials listed in table 1.5. The assessed material composition of each commodity group was stated in appendix 2 as well as appendix 5. As an example of these data table 1.4 states the estimated composition of the commodity group 85014 (vacuum cleaners). As it appears, the contents of all materials are stated as percentages, rounded off to whole numbers. Threshold values The contents of materials each constituting less than 1% of the total material weight of the product, was not attempted estimated. This threshold value was introduced as a consequence of the fact that many industrial products are composed of a very large amount of different materials, of which many are used only in very small quantities in the product. Without such a threshold a survey of the composition of industrial products would be an overwhelming task. Besides, materials in such small quantities do in reality not affect the total loss of resources or the energy consumption of the product. For packaging materials a limit of 5% was in principle applied, based on experience from the pilot project (cf. /2/) that it should be avoided to make disproportionate efforts to survey packaging materials, if these have no significant importance for the total result. In practice it was possible to estimate also packaging materials of many commodity groups down to the level of 1%. The total share of materials that are each below the threshold value will vary considerably from one commodity group to another. In order to avoid that a considerable part of the materials in a commodity group is not included at the ranking, it was chosen to define a fictive material ("D500 Other") to represent the sum of all the materials below the threshold value. The material "D500 Other" was deliberately added resource and energy data that must be considered conservative compared to those of the majority of other materials (cf. table 1.5). Table 1.4 Table 1.4 Estimated material composition of the commodity group 85014 - vacuum cleaners It should be noted that for commodity groups, which are in reality exclusively consisting of renewable materials that are recreated concurrently with the use (e.g. foodstuffs), the loss of resources could be considerably overestimated, if conservatively the packaging share is estimated at 5%, and only the material "D500 Other" is used to describe this packaging share. By means of a special check of composition data it was attempted to avoid such an overestimated loss of resources. At this check it was especially focused on commodity groups that could be foreseen to become ranked highly because of large quantities. Materials that are individually below the threshold value were - to the extent they were known - included in the material composition with a contents percentage of 0. Thus it was achieved that the information that these materials are constituent parts of the product is not lost. Miscellaneous groups The material composition of "misc." groups (cf. section 1.2), is defined as 100% of the material "D500 Other". The result is that the ranking of "misc." groups will sooner be overestimated rather than the opposite. Packaging Packaging material reused directly for the same purpose (e.g. soft drink bottles, milk cases, euro pallets etc.) is written off with the product it is used for. As an example a beer bottle reused approx. 50 times is registered with only 2% of its weight. For certain types of transport packaging, e.g. tank wagons, ships etc. it can immediately be estimated that the packaging is reused so many times that it - as regards weight - is of no importance to the finished article. The material list (cf. table 1.5) is to be considered a pragmatic attempt to identify the most used materials in industrial products. At the development of this list the following criteria were applied:
These criteria means that under the same name materials are grouped that on the basis of other criteria would be separated. Thus the characters of many of these materials are sooner material groups than specific materials. This was considered acceptable, as the differences between the individual materials can be considered of no importance in this connection. As an example, it was considered unimportant to distinguish between low-/unalloyed cast iron and low-/unalloyed soft steel, as the difference between these materials are primarily based on the content of carbon and the applied processing techniques, which are in this connection considered insignificant. It must be admitted though that part of the materials mentioned here (especially chemical materials) is in reality groups covering rather a large amount of materials with significantly different characteristics. An example is the material "K459 Pesticides/preservatives" covering a series of substances/materials that is significantly different - both as concerns energy consumption for manufacture and the environmental impact. It must be recognized that within the scope of this project it was not possible to distinguish more precisely between the relevant substances/materials covered by this material group. In this case the criterion "that is must be possible to identify the material in industrial products" was decisive. Secondary materials For a few materials in the material list a secondary material was defined (e.g. "g101 Packing glass" and "x609 packing glass"). Secondary materials are here defined as materials containing a substantial part of recycled materials. The purpose of including secondary materials is to credit the industrial products containing secondary materials with the energy gains achieved, as the secondary materials are typically cheaper than primary materials as regards energy. In practice secondary materials (except the material "x608 Crushed concrete" are normally based on a mixture of recycled (secondary) materials and primary raw materials - with significantly varying mixture proportions. There are but few secondary materials based 100% on recycled materials. All secondary materials connected to materials in the material list are defined as mixtures containing a substantial part of recycled materials. The corresponding "primary" material is accordingly defined as based exclusively or predominantly on primary raw materials. Secondary versus primary material There were special considerations in connection with the use of secondary versus primary materials, as manufacturers and importers normally do not know whether the materials contained in industrial products are secondary or primary. Comments on the most important secondary materials are as follows: Cast iron/soft steel (low-alloyed) On the basis of information from /6, 7/ the secondary and primary materials can be divided approximately as follows:
Aluminium On the basis of information from /8, 9, 10, 11, 12/ it is estimated that the division between secondary and primary materials is approximately as follows:
Copper On the basis of information from /13, 14/ it is assessed that the division between secondary and primary materials are approximately as follows:
Packing glass According to information from Holmegaards Glasværk (glassworks) all packing glass manufactured in Denmark contains waste glass in varying quantities. Therefore packing glass manufactured in Denmark is in this report considered a secondary material. As Danish products packed in glass on the whole dominate the market, it was chosen to consider all packing glass secondary material. Cardboard and paper Cardboard is a material based on secondary materials to a wide extent. In this project all wrapping cardboard is considered secondary material. As regards paper, products like egg trays, kitchen rolls and toilet paper are secondary materials, whereas other paper products conservatively are considered primary materials. Working means Working means are in this project considered related to the machine where they are used - not to the product processed in the machine. In this way, detergents, softeners and water are counted among the materials belonging to a washing machine, and not included in the material composition of textiles. It is stressed that the products (e.g. textiles) treated in the machine are not included in the working means. The material drinking water as a working means The sum of all materials in an industrial product will of course always be 100%. In connection with one individual material - drinking water - it was however found appropriate to depart from this rule. The reason is that as regards the industrial products in connection with which water is a working means (e.g. washing machines, dish washers, textile processing machines etc.) the consumption of water throughout the life cycle of the product is normally so large that the relative contents of all other materials will be far below 1% (i.e. the machine is in practice composed exclusively of drinking water). As drinking water is considered a renewable material that is recreated concurrently with its use, this would mean that the loss of resources for the machines in question would be calculated as zero. This of course would be an absurd result which would be due to the chosen calculation procedure exclusively. In order to avoid this result, it was chosen to decide the composition in such a way that the sum of all materials other than water will be 100% for the industrial products including water as a working means. Then the relative contents of water is calculated, the result of which might be several thousand percent. Shortcomings of the material list It was necessary to prepare the material list at an early stage of the project. For various reasons - time or other practical causes - it was not possible later on to correct the material list, even though it turned out to be incomplete and inappropriate. Some of the recognized material list problems are as follows:
The material division is thus in no way to be considered the final and optimal division, but rather a qualified estimate considered useful in connection with this project. This implies of course that the errors caused by the shortcomings of the material list are taken into consideration at the assessment of the project results. 1.5 Resource and energy data1.5.1 Resource dataThe assessment of the loss of resources for commodity groups is based on an estimated loss of resources for each individual material in the commodity group. At the same time it was decided whether the material was considered renewable, and if renewable materials were recreated concurrently with their use. Loss of resources The loss of resources of each individual material was determined on the basis of the size of the part of the material in the finished industrial product that will not be recycled in the end. At the assessment the following kinds of loss were in principle considered:
These losses are here mainly assessed to be dependent on the material in question. Consequently it is here considered meaningful to talk of "an average material-dependent loss of resources" indicating the part of the material that will normally be lost, irrespective of the industrial product in which it is used. E.g. it was calculated that the average loss of resources of the material "j010 Cast iron/soft steel (unalloyed/low-alloyed)" will be 10%. This means that as an average approx. 10% of all the low-alloyed iron and steel introduced to the Danish community with industrial products are lost and approx. 90% are recycled. Table 1.5 shows the average loss of resources of each material. The loss of resources was determined on the basis of knowledge available in literature, information from experts, including the recycling trade in Denmark, and common sense. The stated loss of resources is considered covering the situation in Denmark in the early nineties. The precise arguments for the loss of resources are stated in appendix 6. For certain industrial products the loss of resources of the materials will deviate from the average loss of resources. This applies especially to products that are not likely to be recycled. E.g. a wrist watch or a ballpoint pen of stainless steel that is discarded must be expected to end up in the rubbish bin together with the refuse instead of being collected with scrap iron. The real loss of resources of stainless steel in the wrist watch/ballpoint pen is consequently closer to 100% rather than the 3% estimated to be the average loss of resources for stainless steel (cf. table 1.5). To avoid this problem an estimate was made for all commodity groups of whether the loss of resources for one or more materials in the commodity group in question would deviate from the average loss of resources. Then the calculation value was estimated and determined. The precise estimates and actual data of each commodity group appear from appendix 5. It is stressed that by calculating the loss of resources in this way, it was not considered that there is a considerable recycling of certain products in the use phase. As examples are mentioned used car doors taken out from ramshackle cars and resold; old timber beams cut out for other purposes and used bricks from demolished buildings used for new buildings. This kind of recycling is not considered at the calculation of the loss of resources for materials. This kind of recycling is however indirectly included in the calculations, as in reality the life cycles of the industrial products are extended resulting in a decreased consumption of new industrial products. In this way the influence of this kind of recycling means a decreased quantity of industrial products calculated. Renewable materials As mentioned in section 1.1.2 it was in this project chosen to consider all materials based on geological resources to be non-renewable materials, whereas vegetable and animal materials were considered renewable materials. Additionally there is however a long series of other materials estimated to be renewable. Thus are gases recovered from the air - and sooner or later will escape to the air again - considered renewable materials. Carbon dioxide mainly produced by burning of fossil fuels is however because of the production method estimated a non-renewable material.
Notes for table 1.5: *1 Data stated in this list are derived from appendix 6. As regards definition of headings, reference is made to section 1.5 in the text. *2 High-alloy soft steel and cast iron are defined as steel and iron with more than 5% alloy components. *3 Stainless steel is defined as steel with more than 12% chromium. Some steel types can be categorized as either j012 or j013. The category considered the most natural based on the application was chosen *4 Alloys are categorised according to their dominant metal, unless they belong with one of the alloys specifically mentioned. *5 Nickel-copper alloys are all alloys with essential contents of copper and nickel, including German silver (copper-zinc-nickel) and aluminium bronze (copper-aluminium-nickel). The aluminium bronze is the bronze alloy to be applied, when bronze is to meet heavy demands on strength (cf. tin bronze). *6 Copper-tin alloys are all alloys containing copper and tin, including red bronze (copper-tin-lead-zinc) and tin bronze (copper-tin). Tin bronze is considered typically used for decoration purposes (figures etc.) and as bearing material in machines/motors. Tin bronze often contains a little lead and is then called lead bronze). *7 This material is fibres of sisal (agave), coconut, jute, flax etc. *8 This material is both vegetable oils for cooking and linseed oil etc. *9 Includes also UV-hardening paints and lacquers. *10 Chromating, phosphating and anodizing are methods for surface treatment of metals - methods that in principle are based on oxidation of the surface leading to formation of corrosion products that protect against further oxidation. Anodizing is used for aluminium only. It should be noted that at the computer calculations of the energy consumption the ASC values are stated as zero. The reason is that an upper limit of the ASC values of 3,000 GJ/tonne was entered in the computer system. Due to the very layers developed by chromating and phosphating this will however have no significant influence on the calculated results. There are special considerations in connection with salt (NaC1) and products manufactured on the basis of salt. As sea salt, salt is a renewable resource, as the greater part of the salt quantity used in the Danish community must be anticipated returned to the sea. This takes place partly as salt discharged to the sea with wastewater and rainwater, and partly indirectly because of the chemical compounds sodium and chlorine that are extracted from salt are spread in the community and the environment, but sooner or later combine again thus generating salt. In this way there is a constant cycle of sea salt. It is however different with rock salt, which is a geological occurrence that must be considered a non-renewable resource. Generally the principle used in this project is that today‘s dominant resource and process of manufacture decide whether a certain material is assessed to be renewable or non-renewable. As regards salt, the situation is that in Denmark the production is exclusively based on rock salt, whereas sea salt internationally by and large has similar - or maybe even higher importance. For that reason it was in this project chosen to consider salt and all products manufactured on the basis of salt (including chlorine, salts and bases, of which sodium compounds are the chief part of the consumption) as renewable resources. It should be noted that the material "k457 Photographic chemicals" are assessed to be renewable, as this material is dominated by sulphur and sodium compounds, which are considered renewable. The principle that the dominant resource and process manufacture are decisive for the assessment of the material in question became important to a series of chemical materials that actually include many different substances, of which some are based on renewable resources and others on non-renewable resources. This is not dealt with in detail her, but it should be mentioned that it was necessary to make a choice in connection with several materials, and it might of course be discussed whether this choice was appropriate. Is the resource recreated concurrently with its use? For all renewable materials it was assessed whether the resource is recreated concurrently with its present use. As regards the all-important part of the renewable materials there was no doubt that a sufficient recreation is in fact taking place. As an example it can be mentioned that the resource of wood - and thus the dominant resource of cardboard, paper and many other materials - at least in Northern Europe - is growing. The only materials that caused special considerations were "v204 Precious woods - tropical" and "a252 Fish and shellfish". It was chosen here to consider the material "v204 Precious woods - tropical" as a material that is not recreated concurrently with its use, as this was considered the case as regards the dominant part of tropical wood. This assessment was considered as not being contrary to the fact that certain types of wood, e.g. teak, are predominantly based on working of plantations and consequently should be recreated to a sufficient extent. Contrary to that, it was assessed that the resource "a252 Fish & shellfish" is recreated concurrently with its use. This assessment presupposes that the specified catch quota ensure that the resource is not exploited excessively. It is stressed that in connection with the assessment as to whether a renewable resource is recreated concurrently with its use, it was not considered whether the resource was manufactured in a sustainable way. Such an assessment that considers the impact by the manufacture on the environment (e.g. the correlation between the agricultural meat production, the manure and the nitrogen impact on the marine environment and the resulting consequences) is far more complex and of an extent that was impossible to fit into the scope of this project. 1.5.2 Energy dataFor all materials in this project data of the following were estimated:
Additionally, for certain commodity groups - if relevant - the energy consumption during the use of the industrial products was estimated. It should be noted that EP (energy consumption for extraction, manufacture and processing of materials plus the energy of these materials - cf. table 1.1) was calculated as the sum of ASC + processing supplement (if relevant) + energy content (if relevant). ASC (= Accumulated material-Specific energy Consumption At the calculation of the energy consumption for extraction and manufacture (ASC) of materials, the energy consumption for the following purposes is in principle included, as the aim was to establish a realistic estimate of the energy consumption:
Information of ASC was collected from all available sources, including literature, centres for research and knowledge, experts, foreign databases as well as Danish enterprises. In certain cases it was necessary to estimate the ASC on the basis of enthalpy calculations (i.e. by calculating the difference in the chemical energy contents of the raw materials compared to the end product - the enthalpy = the chemical energy contents; the enthalpy of a chemical material depends on the position of electrons in relation to the nuclei of the atoms. For a few materials the energy consumption was established based on a comparison to other materials. Table 1.5 shows the estimated data of ASC for all materials. The precise preconditions and calculations of each material appear from appendix 6. Literature was the preferred data source to the extent that information was at all available. Data from literature vary however considerably because of differences of technology levels and the age of the data in question. It was attempted to compensate for differences of age (e.g. data from 1970 versus data from 1980) by projecting all information of ASC to 1990. Thus an immediate comparison between literature data and current data provided by enterprises was achieved. The projecting of old data to 1990 is in all cases based on the development of energy efficiency within the relevant trades in Denmark. In this connection the Danish research institution RISØ provided assistance. On the basis of Statistics Denmark‘s input-output statistics RISØ calculated the energy efficiency measured as energy consumption (in TJ) in relation to production value (in million DKK) for all trades in Denmark for all years during the period of 1970 to 1989 /16/. These figures show that certain trades, e.g. the metal industry, have a significant development in the form of higher energy efficiency, whereas the picture of other trades is rather confusing, which is probably indicating structural changes within the trades in question - rather than varying energy efficiency. Here it was chosen to carry out projecting for only the trades showing a distinct development. This development was subsequently considered to apply to Danish as well as foreign production processes. In this project it was not possible to relate data from different sources to different technology levels. For materials for which several data of ASC values were available, the ASC value was in practice established as the mean value of the available data. Data that were considered less reliable or less representative were however neglected. All ASC values (and other energy data) were recalculated to consumption of primary energy, i.e. it was compensated for loss of energy at refining of oil and at conversion of primary fuels to electricity. The recalculation was made by defining the energy efficiency of the most important energy sources used in manufacture and transport processes. The following energy efficiency values were applied: Electricity (used for heating and process energy: 35% Oil and oil products (used for transport, heating and process energy: 90% Natural gas and coal (used for heating and process energy): 100% These energy efficiency values are in practice used in such a way that e.g. the energy consumption in the form of electricity was divided by 35% = 35/100 = 0.35 to achieve the ASC value. To the extent that a material is created as a by-product at the manufacture of another material, only the energy consumption for the further processing was included at the calculation of the ASC value of the by-product. E.g. wool, leather and feather are considered by-products of meat production. Therefore, energy consumption for breeding of animals is included under meat products and not under wool, leather and feather. The correctness of this assumption can of course be discussed, especially in connection with by-products, such as wool that has a real commercial value. The energy consumption for transport is generally a comparatively small part of the total ASC value and typically less than 1 GJ/tonne. In some cases, e.g. carriage by sea from other continents, the transport contribution may increase to 1 - 3 GJ/tonne. The transport contribution was estimated and included in the ASC value in the cases in which this contribution was considered significant compared to the energy consumption for other purposes. The unit values stated in table 1.6 were used at the calculation of the transport contribution.
For a series of materials it was not possible to procure data of ASC values from literature, centres of research and knowledge or Danish enterprises. For some of these materials it was in this project chosen to carry out enthalpy calculations (i.e. calculation of the difference in the chemical energy contents of the raw materials compared to the end product). These calculations were carried out for synthetic rubber materials and chemical compounds. The enthalpy calculations are based on the raw materials used for manufacture of the chemical compounds. Naturally it was necessary to look at the raw materials of which ASC values are available. Then the process stages - that the raw materials are to pass to become chemical compounds - are assessed. Each stage is characterised by certain chemical intermediate products, each representing an energy level (enthalpy = the chemical energy contents of chemical substances). On the basis of the composition of chemical compounds and intermediate products it can be assessed whether each process stage requires supply of energy or develops energy and the energy quantity per tonne of chemical compound. By adding these energy quantities it was possible to calculate the total energy quantity (i.e. process energy quantity) necessary to convert the raw materials to the required chemical compounds. It is stressed that it is possible to estimate the minimum energy requirement during the process from raw material to finished article by this calculation. The calculation does not consider comfort energy, transport etc. For the materials in connection with which this calculation was made it was chosen here to only include the process stages requiring supply of energy. Further it was chosen to establish the ASC value as being the calculated minimum energy need plus 100%, thus including comfort energy, transport etc. Such a calculation is of course subject to some uncertainty, but is nevertheless assessed to result in a realistic ASC value. As enthalpy calculations represent rather a heavy workload, it was not possible to make such calculations for all materials for which information of ASC was not available in literature etc. For certain materials it was therefore considered acceptable to make a qualified estimate based on knowledge of other materials. As an example, the ASC value of cadmium was established to be corresponding to the value of zinc, as cadmium exclusively is extracted as a by-product at zinc production. Correspondingly the ASC value of the material "k454 Other solvents (chlorinated etc.)" was estimated on the basis of knowledge of the energy consumption at the manufacture of oxygen containing solvents and the energy consumption at the manufacture of pesticides. Finally it should be noted that for materials that are in reality material groups (especially chemical materials) the same rule as for loss of resources was used, that is to say that the ASC value was established on the basis of the dominant materials. Thus the ASC value of the material "k470 bases" determined on the basis of the ASC value of NaOH, which is the overall dominant technical base. Processing supplement The ASC value as described above will only to a limited extent include the energy consumption throughout all the processing stages of the industrial product. An example is that the ASC value of steel and other metals normally only covers typical commercial products from metal works like bars, beams and sheets, whereas the material of the finished goods might turn out to be in special forms and dimensions after having undergone a series of adaptation, hardening and polishing processes. Correspondingly the ASC values of foodstuffs and other vegetable and animal products cover only the materials as raw (fresh, cut out meat, rough timber), whereas the character of the finished article might be e.g. ready-made casseroles and furniture. For a series of materials there might thus be significant energy consumption in the further processing. Here it was chosen to allow for this additional energy consumption by defining a special processing supplement. This processing supplement reflects the additional energy consumption typically required at the further processing of materials that can also be used unprocessed. Table 1.5 shows the processing supplement for materials to which such a supplement seems relevant. Whether the processing supplement of a material should be included in the calculation was decided on the basis of an assessment of the material composition of each individual commodity group (cf. appendix 5). For all materials stated as being included in a commodity group it was considered whether to add processing supplement to the material in question or not. If in the column of processing supplement a Y for yes is stated, a processing supplement has been added at the calculation of the energy consumption of the material in question (i.e. EP (cf. table 1.1) was calculated as ASC + processing supplement + energy content (if relevant)). If an N for no is stated, no processing supplement has been added (i.e. EP was calculated as ASC + energy content (if relevant)). Thus it was chosen to consider the question of processing supplement for the individual materials in an industrial product as a question of either/or, which is of course a drastic simplification of reality. In practice the energy consumption for processing of materials varies from one product to another within wide limits. Consequently it would be much more appropriate to apply a graded scale. Roughly estimated, a scale with a range of 10 and 200% of the processing supplements stated here would be needed. The problem is however that the knowledge required for creating such a scale, let alone judging precisely where on the scale each individual material of industrial product is to be placed is not available. Such scales may be developed within the coming 10 years, but the task would in any case be enormous. The choice made in this project - to treat the processing supplement as an either/or - must consequently be considered the only realistic method for systematically taking the energy consumption related to further processing of a certain material under consideration. Processing supplement - when? It was not possible to make precise definitions of when a processing supplement should be added. Guidelines were however provided, which were the basis for the decisions made for each individual commodity group. A short resume of these guidelines appears from table 1.7 below. When processing supplements have not been added to a series of materials, this is due to the following:
The data used for the estimation of the processing supplement were derived partly from Danish enterprises, partly from literature. All data were converted to primary energy to the same principle as used at the calculation of ASC values. To the extent that data from literature are old, these have been projected to approx. 1990 in the same way as described in connection with ASC values. The precise preconditions of the stated ASC values are for each material described in appendix 6. Energy content The energy content of the materials stated in table 1.5 is the net calorific value calculated as the calorific value of the dry matter contents minus the energy quantity needed to heat the water contents from 20°C to 100° C and convert this water contents to steam. Information of the energy content of the various materials is to a wide extent found in literature. In certain cases it was however necessary to estimate the calorific value of the dry matter content and then subsequently calculate the net calorific value. The precise preconditions of each material appear from appendix 6. The energy content is among other things used to calculate the energy of each commodity group expected to be recovered, if the entire material quantity ending up as loss of resources is collected with combustible waste. The preconditions of this calculation are that 75% of all combustible waste ends up in solid waste incineration plants, and that the average energy efficiency of such plants is approx. 80%. This corresponds fairly to the present situation, as the presumed energy efficiency among other things allows for the fact that it will only be possible to utilise part of the produced waste-generated heat during the summer period. It should be noted that this calculation of certain commodity groups is not quite precise, as it presupposes that the loss of resources (more precisely 75% hereof) is always brought to incineration plants. Thus it is not allowed for the fact that certain commodity groups (e.g. foodstuffs) the loss of resources will never - or only to a modest extent - end up in incineration plants. As regards other commodity groups (e.g. coal) the loss of resources will be incinerated all right, but the energy exploitation will be different than the one in an incineration plant. As far as it can be assessed, the inaccuracy of the resulting calculated data will be within the general uncertainties of the calculation results. Thus it has no significant importance to the ranking of the commodity groups. Energy consumption during use The energy consumption during use was in principle calculated as the total energy consumption during the use phase/throughout the life of the industrial product. This calculation was normally based on information of the energy consumption per working hour of a typical product in the commodity group combined with an estimate of the total quantity of working hours throughout the life of the product. In this way the total energy consumption throughout the life for each product of the commodity group was estimated. At this estimate all types of energy consumption were converted to primary energy to the same principles used at the calculation of ASC values. In order to determine the total energy consumption in the working phase of the commodity group it was necessary to know the amount of products in the commodity group. This amount was here calculated on the same quantitative basis as is generally used in the calculations (cf. section 1.3), as an average weight of industrial products in the commodity group was estimated. Data of energy consumption per working hour and average weight are to a wide extent based on information provided by Danish enterprises and importers. The average weight was alternatively calculated on the basis of information in the foreign trade statistics. The estimated energy consumption and average weight for each commodity group are together with the precise preconditions stated in appendix 5. 1.6 Environmentally harmful substancesAs stated in section 1.1.3 it was assessed for each individual commodity group whether it contained environmentally harmful substances. At this assessment in this project the focus was exclusively on the environmentally harmful substances cadmium, lead, nickel, copper and phthalates. The background for the choice of these substances is that the substances in question and their applications are today only partly regulated, and in the author‘s opinion it is considered likely that some day some kind of regulation will be introduced (or the regulation in force will become more stringent), as it is known that the substances and applications in different ways cause environmental problems. It was found unnecessary to focus on substances already regulated (examples: PCB, pentachlorophenol, cadmium in plastic etc.), or of which regulation is immediately forthcoming (mercury), as the applications of these substances are known in detail. It should be noted that industrial products contain many other environmentally harmful chemical substances than the ones mentioned here. The amount of environmentally harmful chemical substances that could and should be included at the assessment of the environmental impact related to industrial products, are in reality considerably large. That only the substances cadmium, lead, nickel, copper and phthalates are considered in this project, is primarily due to the time and resource limits this project was subject to. An extension of the list of environmentally harmful chemical substances in industrial products established here might consequently be needed. It should be stressed however that as the occurrence of certain environmentally harmful substances to a wide extent is related to the use of certain materials, far more environmentally harmful substances than the five substances/substance groups focused on in this section have been identified in this project. Thus the occurrence of PAH compounds is mainly related to petrochemical liquids, bitumen and asphalt, whereas e.g. the occurrence of chromium is mainly related to iron and steel alloys, chromium surfaces (chromium-plating) and leather (chrome-tanned). Comments on the chosen substances/substance groups especially focused on in this section are as follows: Cadmium is generally accepted as one of the most important environmental poisons. A number of the most essential applications of cadmium has already been regulated, and the use of cadmium for most purposes has ceased or is decreasing. NiCd batteries are an exception to this development. These batteries are used in more and more contexts, and the consumption has been increasing considerably for a number of years. The use of these batteries is today partly regulated, as they are attempted collected and reused. The collection results do however not live up to the goals determined /23/, and it is assessed that there is a need for further measures or regulations. Lead is also identified as one of the most important environmental poisons. Only the most problematic uses (lead shots, lead additives for petrol etc.) have so far been regulated. It is however the objective of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency that the use of lead for most purposes should cease in the long term /22/. Nickel is especially known in relation with nickel allergy, and in this connection a regulation has been introduced. New investigations have however revealed that nickel is also a problem in connection with use and disposal of slag from solid waste incineration plants /20/. It is assessed here that nickel will be one of the heavy metals that the Danish EPA will focus on in the years to come. Copper is simultaneously an essential nutritious matter and an important ingredient in a number of pesticides. Recent investigations have shown that copper poses a problem in connection with use and disposal of slag from solid waste incineration plants /20/. It is assessed here that copper will be one of the heavy metals that the Danish EPA will focus on in the years to come. Phthalates are a substance group that has drawn a lot of attention for many years (risk of cancer etc.) At a recent investigation of environmentally harmful substances in residual products and emissions from solid waste treatment facilities the phthalates DEHP and DBP are ranked as the two organic compounds in such residual products and emissions resulting in the most severe environmental impact /21/. It is assessed here that phthalates are a substance group for which substitution considerations will be initiated in the years to come. In table 1.8 the included uses of the individual substances are stated. It is stressed that as regards nickel, copper and phthalates no detailed investigation of the application pattern in Denmark has so far been carried out. The applications of the substances in question mentioned in table 1.8 are consequently to be considered fingertip knowledge and far from a complete overview. All intentional applications, except the use of lead compounds as siccative in paint, as it is unclear to what extent it still occurs in Denmark. All applications as pure metal, metal alloys and surface treatment (nickel-plating) except solder alloys (the use of nickel for this purpose is unclear). Not applications as chemical compounds and natural/artificial contaminant All applications as pure metal, metal alloys, surface treatment and pesticides. Other applications like chemical compounds are only partly covered, whereas applications like natural/artificial contaminant are not. Application like softener in soft PVC. Applications like softener in water-based paints, glue, printing ink and active substance in mosquito (Pht)repellent are not included. |
