RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN'S DIAPER SYSTEMS

Life-cycle assessment is increasingly being recognized as an important tool for determining the environmental impacts of products and packaging. A complete life-cycle assessment consists of three components: life-cycle inventory, impact assessment, and improvement assessment. The impact assessment methodology is still relatively undeveloped and controversial; however, the life-cycle inventory methodology is well established. Life-cycle inventory provides useful information on the quantities of energy and resources consumed and environmental releases associated with product and packaging systems. This article illustrates the types of useful information that are obtained from a life-cycle inventory and shows how the information can be analyzed and used to target areas for improving products in terms of reducing energy usage, resource usage, and environmental releases.