A Study on Environmental Impact Evaluation of Metallic Can Using Life Cycle Assessment

In this study, Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) has been carried out to evaluate the environmental impacts of a metallic can. A 360 mL volume of an aluminum can bottle was used as the functional unit. The results of Life Cycle Inventory(LCI) showed that iron ore and coal were the major parts of the input materials, whereas aluminum can products, carbon dioxide, wastewater, and hazardous wastes were those of the output ones. According to LCA weighting, it was observed that the most significant impact potential was found to be global warming(49.11%) followed by abiotic resource depletion(47.72%). In the whole system, cold rolled steel coil showed the largest environmental impact potential(86%), followed by electricity(14%). Meanwhile, lubricating oil and industrial water had the minor portion of the total environmental impact potentials. It was suggested that the use of cold rolled steel and electricity should be the main source for $CO_2$ , resulting in the big impact on global warming.