Acta Anaesthesiol Scand 2009;53:6878, 19. BIC reported that the weight of one of their most popular disposable razors is 8.8 grams (Shavers). All of these software packages and models are in widespread use by life cycle assessment practitioners in the US and internationally. 0 8tZ BIC states that it prides itself on producing affordable, safe, and quality razors for its customers worldwide. 4.Complete the form It is also often not accepted in curbside recycling, and even when it is, it is not separated and recycled when it reaches the dumping station, making it an unsustainable and wasteful material (Polystyrene. Wikipedia.org). Anaesthesia 2000;55:7001, 18. They have also reduced shipping time, by only sending the blades from Greece to Mexico to optimize the tools and products available in each location, instead of having all the materials shipped to each factory. The human-health-related impact categories are pertinent to those developing standards for the delivery of health care. The LMA, within the heat seal pouch, was then placed in the steam autoclave sterilizing machine (Castle/Getinge MC 3522). Zhang TW, Dornfeld DA. 45. They have estimated that they expend around 11.77 gigajoules of energy per ton of their products that they produce (For You For Everyone Registration Document) The BIC report also categorized the energy where they obtained the energy. LCA is a technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Lippiatt BC, Boyles AS. Polyphenylene Oxides.Polyphenylene Oxides - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, 2013, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemical-engineering/polyphenylene-oxides. A Life Cycle Assessment of Disposable Razors. The blade is made from a tungsten steel, and carbon alloy. These results suggest that the reusable LMA Classic has fewer life cycle impacts in comparison with the disposable LMA Unique at Yale New Haven Hospital, across several categories of concern. The next step the blade goes through is called polishing in which is done using strops made out of cowhide to get the desired blade edge shape, the blade is then cut into the sizes of the individual blades, which are then sent off to be inspected. The plastic, however stable for the user, remains stable long after it is thrown away as well. It is used to assist companies, consumers, and policy-makers in greening their practices and decisions. Then we collected and structured the data in phase 2. A comparative cradle to grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to determine and analyze the environmental impacts of using disposable acrylic speculums versus using reusable stainless-steel speculums in a women's university health clinic where around 5,000 pelvic exams are conducted on a yearly basis. @article{Cordella2015EvolutionOD, title={Evolution of disposable baby diapers in Europe: life cycle assessment of environmental impacts and identification of key areas of improvement}, author={Mauro Cordella and Iris Bauer and Anja Lehmann and Matthias Schulz and Oliver Wolf}, journal={Journal of Cleaner Production}, year={2015}, volume={95 . Recycling of Polypropylene (PP). AZoCleantech.com, 25 June 2012, www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=240. The metal is then quenched in water to bring it to -76 to -112 degrees Fahrenheit to harden the material (Safety Razor). Small components such as inks and labels on the packaging and on the sterilization indicator strips are expected to have negligible impacts and were excluded from the analysis. What Is Polystyrene? Certain practices would further reduce the environmental impacts of reusable LMAs, such as increasing the number of devices autoclaved in a single cycle to 10 (25% GHG emissions) and improving the energy efficiency of the autoclaving machines by 10% (8% GHG emissions). The processes that contribute to these emissions differ markedly between the 2 LMA devices. : Uses, Benefits, and Safety Facts.ChemicalSafetyFacts.org, 17 June 2019, www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/polystyrene/. Anaesth Intensive Care 2010;38:538, 9. Die Basics 101: Intro to Stamping. The Fabricators, 18 July 2018, www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/stamping/die-basics-101-intro-to-stamping. a 4.1% (Bic). The designed short user-time of disposable razors, causes their life cycle to be spent mostly in the landfill where they will remain for hundreds of years due to non-biodegradable plastic, however, recycling the plastic and steel is possible if sent to specific recycling facilities, which could reduce the life cycle and negative impact on the environment. use/disposable and multiple-use/washable surgical gowns. There are so many variables that you have to take into account when calculating how much of an impact a product is having on the environment and our resources. There are only two components for the BIC disposable razors which are the plastic body and razor blade. In this post I havent shown the whole process, but there are downloadable links to my full Eco-Indicator results, and to the template form if youd like to carry out an assessment yourself. The final product is then gathered and prepared to go through the final step which is the packaging of razors. It is used in razor manufacturing mainly due to its high heat and water resistance, making it ideal for the conditions the product is used in. Bic did have an increase in non-hazardous waste due to: expansion work or renovation of buildings or development of new products and manufacturing equipment (For You For Everyone: Registration Document, Bic) For carbon footprint assessments for large companies, they are assessed on direct (scope 1) emissions and indirect (scope 2) emissions of greenhouse gases. Address e-mail to [emailprotected]. When the devices entered use at Yale New Haven Hospital, both the disposable and the reusable LMAs were removed from their original packaging, which was discarded. Ask a worker if you can put them in the bin by themselves or if they need to be in a recyclable container to protect sanitation workers from being cut. Reusable LMAs in general appear to be made largely of silicone, lacking these same concerns for PVC/DEHP. However, by looking at just this one company, there is a sense of the massive amount of direct and indirect emissions from just the making of razors that are thrown away so quickly after use, with an increase annually of users. The number of times an LMA is reused is a particularly uncertain assumption, because there have been reports of premature disposal.16 Use in excess of the manufacturer recommended 40 times has also been reported,17 and 100 to 200 uses appears to be possible with proper handling and preuse checks.1821 Here, 10, 20, 30, 60, 80, and 100 cycles are considered as alternative assumptions. In the case of the disposable razor however, it is fairly simple due to its nature. The majority (77%) of life cycle CO2e emissions for the reusable LMA is from natural gas production and combustion to produce steam for the autoclave machine. Once Terracycle has collected the waste, it is: broken down and separated by material. To aid in solving this issue, I believe consumers should stray away from wasteful disposable razors and be encouraged to go with more sustainable and longer lasting options such as classic safety razors. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities. From:. Terracycle is a company that was created to address the issue of recyclable products that often end up in landfills. Health care facilities can decrease their environmental impacts by using reusable LMAs, by selecting disposable LMA models that are not made of certain plastics, and by ordering in bulk from local distributors. The major problem with recycling this plastic however, is that during the heating process, the plastic degrades in quality making it less valuable (What Is Tungsten Carbide or Hard Metal?, AZoM.com). BIC Group, 2016, For You For Everyone Registration Document. Finally, the need for manual labor in the cleaning process of reusable LMAs contributed to the costs of these LMAs. Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2011, 16. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. From San Diego, both LMAs were assumed to be transported 4700 km by truck to New Haven, CT (70% of shipments in the US are made by truck).13. Differences in environmental impacts between devices may present a compelling consideration in their selection. In their study of Life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment technologies treating petroleum process waters, Vlaopolous et al. 21 offers from $5.20. a Centers for Disease Control. These steps are not necessarily conducted in succession, but iteratively. It takes a lifetime perspective LCA takes into consideration all the steps that lead from raw material through manufacture, distribution and usage to final disposal. LCA is the most common tool for quantifying the environmental effects associated with a product, process, or service's entire life (Baumann and Tillman 2004).LCA was performed in accordance with the international standards of the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 . This document is an update and merger of two previous EPA documents on LCA ("Life Cycle Assessment: Inventory Guidelines and Principles," EPA/600/R-92/245, and "LCA101" from the LCAccess, website . Phoenix: IEEE, 2008, 23. At an average of 10 reuse cycles, GHG impacts increase by >50%, and this is the break-even point at which the GHG emissions from reusable and disposable LMAs are essentially equal. BIC Group, 2016, Sustainable Development Report. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a modeling tool for quantifying the environmental impacts of products and processes. Figure: Life Cycle Assessment steps: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment and interpretation (Sala et al., 2016) In the goal and scope phase, the aims of the study are defined, namely the intended application, the reasons for carrying out the study and the intended audience. A SYSTEMATIC METHODOLOGY FOR ACCURATE DESIGN-STAGE ESTIMATION OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION FOR INJECTION MOLDED PARTS. The Fate of the Disposable Razor.Industrial Equipment News (IEN), 7 Aug. 2019, www.ien.com/product-development/news/21081402/the-fate-of-the-disposable-razor. The stability of the plastic components, while necessary for shelf stability and use, takes longer than one persons life-span to decompose. Kaplan, Desire. Hedrick, Art. Sensitivity and simple life cycle cost analyses were conducted to aid in interpretation of the results. Its an extremely strong and durable metal compound, making it perfect for the use of razor blades (Siddle, How Is Tungsten Carbide Formed?; Tungsten Carbide. Wikipedia.org). These are the reasons why I will carry out an Eco-Indicator Assessment instead of a full LCA. For a number of perioperative textiles, surgical instruments, and anesthetic devices, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has been done and has shown reusables to be environmentally favorable to disposables [ 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 ]. Here, Great Recovery Intern Sebastian de Cabo Portugal discusses Life Cycle Assessments. There could be hundreds of different sources for their materials. What does a business area's assessment of agreements, income, and value implicate? Polystyrene is not biodegradable and takes hundreds of years to break down. The natural half life of a large stock of reusable laryngeal mask airways at a teaching hospital. Camera visual inspection is performed and This is all to ensure BICs quality standards are being met and ensure a quality product. Its aim is a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of products and services. Gillette Plastic Disposable Shaving Kit supermax, for Hotel. Finally, inclusion of the environmental impacts of labor for cleaning (from wages spent on goods and services) only nominally increases the total GHG and water impacts of reusable LMAs. Disposable and reusable LMAs typically differ in material composition, packaging, reuse, and cost. Biron, Michel. But what really goes into making one of these seemingly mundane disposable razors and what happens to it after its tossed in the trash? The polypropylene is sorted during recycling using a float test that separates it from other materials based on its ability to float due to its weight, then it is often melted down and reused in other product manufacturing. They report their waste production being at 340 tons, which represented an increase of 22% from 2015 (Bic). Williams S, Henderson K. A survey into the number of times laryngeal masks are used. Anesth Analg 2012;114:105566, 8. BIC says its product beats out other models by 59 percent. I could however not find any details about the energy consumption of the machines used in the assembly process. Growing awareness of the negative impacts from the practice of health care on the environment and public health calls for the routine inclusion of life cycle criteria into the decision-making process of device selection. Recommendations for Infection Control for the Practice of Anesthesiology. To start the process of making the blades, tungsten carbide is melted at high temperatures. BIC currently holds around 11 percent market share in disposable razors (Nash). The next step is to temper the steel at a temperature of 482-752F (250- 400C) and pressed into thin sheets (Safety Razor, madehow.com). Here's How to Keep Your Razors from Contributing to Landfill Waste. USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 7 Aug. 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/07/landfill-waste-how-prevent-disposable-razor-plastic-pollution/1943345001/. The tungsten carbide is then ground into an extremely fine powder in a wet mill process, where metal binders and other metals such as cobalt may be added to increase the metals strength and durability and to help hold the powder together when it is shaped. With the amount of waste accumulated from the factories and the bulk of the razors ending up in landfills and oceans, a low price of $1 removes the buyer from how high the cost on the environment a disposable razor is. Despite its ability to be recycled, it often ends up in the landfill as many people dont know how to properly recycle it, people are too lazy to recycle, or the plastics arent labeled properly (Polypropylene. Wikipedia). Julabo Gmbh, et al. The full life cycle environmental impacts can be challenging to model, because modern production "pathways" can involve numerous interacting technologies, each of which can consume materials and energy that are themselves products of complex production processes. Biro P. Damage to laryngeal masks during sterilization. PPO elements of the disposable razor are hard to determine in years, however, data shows that most plastic items take up to 1,000 years to begin to decompose (LeBlanc). f'C58NQ}i:]1 $Nh@b8H|iWILGgj{J27]Xp0N@h+ !` >q Depending upon on how the razor is packaged, the finished cartridge may or may not be assembled onto the handle of the razor, as some companies choose to package the handle detached the cartridge(s). The metal liquid then goes through a strengthening process called annealing. We purchase the product in a store, use the product for removing unwanted body and facial hair until it eventually dulls, and then we toss it in the bathroom trash, unaware of where it goes or where it came from. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Put the blades in the steel recycling section. The Ramboll Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) found that, assuming realistic usage over a year, the energy consumption involved in the use phase of reusable plastic and traditional crockery, during in-store or out-sourced washing and drying, outweighed the environmental impact of single-use paper dishes. After the parts are manufactured it is time for the final product assembly. Sensor3 disposable razors for men feature an enhanced Lubrastrip with water activated Comfortgel technology for ultra-gentle shaving on your sensitive skin. The high levels of pollution from disposable razor blades alone caused the EPA to claim a national garbage crisis in the late 1980s, and the actual figure of 2 billion razors thrown away every year dates back to the 1990s. An estimated 1 L of tap water was used to wash and rinse 1 LMA (or 40 L over a lifetime of 40 uses). The second component of the razor is the plastic body which is made of a fairly inexpensive plastic called polystyrene. And then there's the water. In the late 1990s, disposable LMAs became available. Growing awareness of the negative impacts from the practice of health care on the environment and public health calls for the routine inclusion of life cycle criteria into the decision-making process of device selection. No such cases have been reported since 1976.a There is no reported case of iatrogenic infection of any type linked to a reusable LMA. LCA is a standardized, science-based tool for quantifying the impact in order to assess lifetime environmental impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a framework for assessing the environmental impacts of product systems and decisions. These few simple materials go through processes of heating, cooling, moulding, cutting, and sharpening throughout their manufacturing process to eventually become the handle, razor blades, and blade cartridge, that will then be assembled to become a disposable razor. Our team of experts has many years of experience in the ecological evaluation of products and services. Case Studies. Case Studies : Reducing BIC's Rejection Rates | KEYENCE America, www.keyence.com/solutions/case-studies/bic.jsp. On the other hand, extending the number of uses to 80 (doubling the lifetime) reduces GHG emissions by 9%. Bic USAs 2016 registration document provides information about the waste produced during the manufacturing of the razors. In this life cycle breakdown, I will be discussing what materials go into the making of disposable razors and what processes the materials go through in the operation of making a disposable razor. The largest source of GHG emissions for the disposable LMAs (23%) is the production and polymerization of PVC, the main material constituent. Phase 3: Life Cycle Impact Assessment. These included alternative routes and modes of transport from San Diego to New Haven, changes in autoclave loading practices and efficiency, and varied amounts of PVC in the disposable LMA. Previous studies have examined the relative environmental profiles of reusables and disposables with regard to medical textiles7 and anesthetic drug trays.8 The present study uses life cycle assessment to evaluate the life cycle impacts of disposable and reusable LMAs across several categories of environmental and human health impacts. On the basis of information provided by the distributing company, the disposable LMA was manufactured in Hangzhou, China, and the reusable LMA was manufactured in Singapore. Facilities that select reusable devices should implement inventory and operating procedures that ensure that devices are reused to the greatest possible extent. A life-cycle assessment or LCA is a 'cradle to grave' analysis of the impact of a manufactured product on the environment. The most important sources of impacts for the disposable LMA were the production of polymers, packaging, and waste management, whereas for the reusable LMA, washing and sterilization dominated for most impact categories. Therefore, to help designers get started and make informed decisions, a Life cycle Analysis (LCA) can be carried out using the information gathered during the research stage. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. This is where the razors are portioned into their desired packaging amounts, that will be sent off to consumers. American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Task Force on Infection Control. Premature disposal of reusable LMAs has significant environmental impacts (as well as costs, discussed below). Once the plastic has cooled, the pieces are released from the moulds. Thomas, G.P. The largest difference in environmental impacts is seen in the impact category of carcinogenesis, in which reusable LMAs cause 5% of the impacts of disposable LMAs. Kelly, John. For climate change impacts specifically, the reusable LMA contributes 7.4 kg CO2e of GHGs over its life cycle, and the equivalent 40 disposable LMAs contribute 11.3 kg CO2e, or approximately the equivalent to burning a gallon (4 L) of gasoline. Innovative and strategic advisor to leading philanthropies, corporates, governments, international institutions and NGOs. More immediate levels of waste, however, happen during the processing of disposable razors before they are even brought to the buyer and the landfill. Click the image for pricing & more info. What's the Difference Between Disposable and Reusable Razors for Women?Venus, www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/womens-shaving-guide/learning-to-shave/disposable-razors-vs-refillable-razors/. Nash, Nathaniel C. HOW BIC LOST THE EDGE TO GILLETTE. The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Apr. Overview. 769 0 obj <>stream The blades and lubricating strip were too light to be measured with our equipment so their weights were rounded to 1g. LCA for product sustainability. Most of those razors just end up in a landfill because most countries are not recycling them. The alloy must allow for easy manufacturing due to the high demand of disposable razors and enough strength to last through transportation and shelf holding. The long and harmful life-cycle of disposable razors is not reflected to the buyer browsing aisles of fully stocked razor shelves. McGain F, McAlister S, McGavin A, Story D. The financial and environmental costs of reusable and single-use plastic anaesthetic drug trays. (ii)Access paramount's competitive position? Life cycle assessment is a "cradle-to-grave" approach for determining the financial and environmental costs of a product over its entire life. It is a thermoplastic that exhibits high heat resistance, dimensional stability, and accuracy and is often combined with other plastics, such as polystyrene, due to various problems in its processing (Poly(p-Phenylene Oxide, Wikipedia.org).

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