EXPLICIT ACCOUNTING METHODS FOR RECYCLING IN LCI

The life cycle inventories (LCIs) of recyclable and recycled materials can be strongly affected by how the savings from recycling are accoun ted. Unfortunately, most LCI methodologies do not explicitly address t he important and subjective question of how to allocate inputs and out puts between primary and secondary material. This paper describes an L CI methodology that enables the analyst to explore and define the acco unting rules more explicitly. Examples are developed to demonstrate th e workings of the methodology and its implications for materials selec tion. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.