Summary in English.

This report concerns the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) of paint and printing ink with focus on the access to data concerning the environmental impact of the raw materials as a condition for the applicability of LCA as a tool for the individual producer.

Generally the producers have experienced that it requires many resources and much time to collect the data on the raw materials necessary to make an LCA for a specific product. The paint industry uses types of raw materials that to a large extent are common among producers and products. Therefore, the Danish Paintmakers’ Association (FDLF) wanted to investigate the possibility of establishing a common database, which would make it easier for the producers to obtain access to valid data on the environmental impact of raw materials during production and to other environmental data on the raw materials to be used in life cycle assessment of specific products.

For this purpose FDLF initiated a project in order to identify the following problems:

• identify expectations and requirements of the industry for a common raw material database

• catalogue and determine priorities for the very large number of raw materials used in the industry

• identify the need for data and the performance criteria for data in different fields of application of LCA in the paint industry

• test collection of LCA data from raw material producers

• make case studies with the purpose of illustrating the use of raw material data in connection with the evaluation of raw materials

• produce guidelines for the industry concerning data collection and data evaluation.

The results of the studies and the collection of data carried out in the project are rendered in the report. It will appear that the success in producing data from the raw material suppliers has been modest, and therefore the guidelines concerning data collection are reduced in the report, and for the same reason there are no specific proposals for creating a common database.

Some of the lessons learned and the conclusions drawn by the paint industry will be adaptable in other chemically based production and will also be useful if it should be possible to work with a common database at a later time.

LCA in the paint industry.

During discussions with the producers and by going over the literature it became clear that the evaluation of the environmental characteristics of paint products and information on these to the market is to a large extent based upon LCAs of relatively complex products. There has not been found a method which meet both the international guidelines and the demand for differentiation between for example two closely related paint products. A demand for the latter often necessitates the use of producer specific raw material data.

A delimitation of the studied LCA systems was investigated and so was an exclusion of raw materials/semimanufactured products which form part of the end products in only small quantities. However, such a delimitation of LCA may be problematic concerning paint and printing ink, because it may be components which form part of the product in relatively small quantities, additives, which are decisive for the product’s toxicological and ecotoxicological qualities, and also because varnish and paint contains so many substances that it may prove difficult to define the limits for what to include and what not to include at a sensible level.

Among the existing, recognised LCA-methods and design tools the Danish LCV-tool was selected. This tool was developed in co-operation with UMIP for the project’s case studies.

Data requirements and –format.

A questionnaire based on a simple input-output model was produced which specified simply and briefly the necessary data to be received from the raw material suppliers. The design of the questionnaire was based upon the paint industry’s own experience as receiver of questionnaires concerning the environmental effect of the products. The questionnaire was used for the retrieval of data for the project.

Raw materials in the paint industry.

In preparation for the collection of data and the creation of a database a screening of the raw materials used was carried out internally in the paint industry and the most relevant ones were selected. The screening was carried out on the basis of the general use of the specific raw materials in the industry and on the basis of the typical content of the raw material in the product. Further, a classification and a terminology for the grouping of the raw materials was made based upon the current technical-chemical literature of the industry.

The suggested grouping and categorisation causes the database for raw materials to include 56 main groups split into app. 325 sub-groups.

Data sources.

A thorough analysis was made concerning which data sources are practically at the disposal to the paint producers, and which limitations, advantages and drawbacks are connected to every single one. In principle 3 types of data are usable:

• Producer-specific data, i.e. the actual raw material supplier’s own data, which can be obtained via questionnaires, from environmental reports or perhaps from the producer’s own LCAs. In practice it is often difficult to obtain producer-specific data at all and to secure correct interpretation and completeness of the data.
  
  It is characteristic that many of the larger raw material producers are happy to produce an expansive statement on their environmental effects in the form of environmental accounts/EMAS environmental account. However, these accounts rarely contain information which make it possible to determine the specific environmental effect per unit of the product.

• Trade/average data, typically scientifically retrieved and worked up LCA data from selected producer groups and trades. There are mainly two frequently quoted sources which are relevant to the paint industry.

• Other data sources, f.inst. data on raw materials related to the raw materials of the paint industry, or LCA examinations of completely different products containing broadly used "basic-chemicals", f.inst. solvents.

Data retrieval and results.

The main purpose of the data retrieval was to collect and test producer-specific data, and a method was selected based upon a written enquiry from FDLF in order to obtain the largest possible impact. Close consideration was given to the presentation of the questionnaire, f.inst. concerning the request for confidence and for finding the easiest possible way for the supplier to reply.

Enquiry was made on a total of 43 different raw materials and mailed to 30 different companies in 2 rounds. The companies were selected among the suppliers actually used by the member companies so that the enquiry from FDLF could be followed up individually. Further there was a reminder procedure in writing.

The data retrieval resulted in 3 usable sets of data for the studied types of raw materials. This result is considered thin – even considering the expected difficulties. Especially it is disappointing that app. 30% of the respondents did not reply at all. After a thorough study nothing indicates that the low percentage of response is due to defects of the applied method.

Valuable knowledge on data retrieval and LCA studies has been obtained in relation to varnish- and paint products. Several observations indicate that the quality of the positive response might be improved if time and resources were allocated for a personal follow up. Such a procedure would, however, demand considerable resources and was outside the objective of the project.

It is likely that in the future a substantial part of the raw material producers will present common trade data in response to the increasing demand for LCA documentation. If this becomes the case, the access to producer-specific data will become more difficult.

Case studies with the LCV system.

Case studies were carried out, and the use of the collected data was tested in the LCV analysis model in order to illustrate:

• comparison of different products with the same scope

• the complex of problems concerning the choice among different raw material suppliers

• the significance of a delimitation of the examined components

The case studies demonstrate the possibilities and the limitations of the life cycle method and the LCV system. It must be emphasised that the products described in the case studies cannot be compared technically or on quality.