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Eco-Efficiency |
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Beyond the purely ecological view, economic aspects are also taken into consideration in eco-efficiency analyses. In order to reach a complete overview of the ecological and economical results with a justifiable effort, a comprehensive ecological life cycle assessment is generally not carried out, and usually the ecological assessment results are aggregated with the objective of expressing a single ecological value in the same manner as economic "costs" are expressed in the unit "currency".
The advantage of the general eco-efficiency analysis lies in the perspective of both the ecological and economical awareness - the major disadvantage is the difficult traceability and transparency in the aggregation of ecological results. LCA results of single impact categories (greenhouse effect, resource demands, cancer risk potentials, etc.) cannot be physically summarised in a sensible manner. Each additional normalisation, weighting and especially the mathematic calculation not complying to LCA standards for reasons mentioned above contains a subjective evaluation of the results.
Nevertheless, the eco-efficiency analysis is an important analytical instrument, particularly for industrial and commercial enterprises. Solutions that provide results on a representative and understandable basis must be found for the disadvantages listed above. At IFEU there are currently two projects on these topics:
- Eco-Efficiency of different waste treatment options (recovery and final treatment) of used beverage packaging and
- Cost-Benefit analysis of disposal (Recycling and final disposal) of used beverage packaging in 4 European countries on behalf of a European industrial association.
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