A streamlined LCA approach for conducting a cost and residual risk based evaluation of automobile recycling alternatives in the United States, Japan, and Europe

This research presents an innovative streamlined life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University to address the complex problem of identifying stressors and determining the related environmental impacts concerned with the disposal of huge quantities of waste generated by end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) in three primary regions: the United States, Europe, and Japan, taking into account the perspectives of automakers and policymakers. The cost and residual risk based methodology, which is the basis of the Environmentally Conscious Decision Support System (EcoDS) tool, combines subjective valuation of environmental impacts derived from a value system obtained from experts and expressed as a residual risk, with an objective valuation of costs associated with implementing schemes that reduce the environmental impact. The residual risk captures intangibles, such as potential liability costs and long-term impacts that are hard to quantify.; The EcoDS methodology has been used to perform a comparative analysis of three automobile recycling alternatives, (1) the current vehicle recycling infrastructure (similar in most developed countries), which is considered the baseline alternative for this study, (2) increased dismantling, which essentially involves the removal of additional parts and materials at the dismantling stage, prior to sending the vehicle to be shredded, and (3) recovery of materials from the shredder residue or waste material left in the end, which would otherwise have to be landfilled.; The results show that in the United States, which still has adequate landfill space available, Alternative 1 is preferred because of the lower costs involved; in Europe, which has initiated a number of disassembly schemes, the policymakers clearly prefer Alternative 2 because of its lower residual risk, while the manufacturers have no clear favorite; and in Japan, the automakers prefer increased disassembly and the policymakers prefer recovery of waste materials. Alternative 3 has the lowest cost in Europe and Japan, while Alternative 2 has the highest in all three regions. A detailed analysis of the results and directions for further work are presented in this thesis.