There are numerous threats to the natural environment that pose a significant risk both to the environment and to human health, including car tires. Thus, there is a need to determine the impact of the life cycle of car tires on the environment, starting with the processes of raw materials acquisition, production, and ending with end-of-life management. Therefore, the authors of this study chose to do research on passenger car tires (size: P205/55/R16). As part of the research, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of traditional car tires was performed with the use of the Eco-indicator 99, cumulative energy demand (CED), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methods. The level of negative effects was determined for the life cycle of a tire and its particular stages: Production, use, and end of life. The negative impact on the atmosphere, soil, and water, as well as on human health, the environment, and natural resources was also investigated. The results show that the most energy-absorbing stage of a car tire life cycle is the use stage. It was found that the most harmful impact involves the depletion of natural resources and emissions into the atmosphere. Recycling car tires reduces their negative environmental impact during all their life cycle stages.

This study deals with the problems connected with the benefits and costs of an offshore wind power plant in terms of ecology. Development prospects of offshore and land-based wind energy production are described. Selected aspects involved in the design, construction, and operation of offshore wind power plant construction and operation are presented. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the environmental impact of offshore and land-based wind power plants. Life cycle assessment analysis of 2-MW offshore and land wind power plants was made with the use of Eco-indicator 99 modeling. The results were compared in four areas of impact in order to obtain values of indexes for nonergonomic (impact on/by operator), nonfunctional (of/on the product), nonecological (on/by living objects), and nonsozological impacts (on/by manmade objects), reflecting the extent of threat to human health, the environment, and natural resources. The processes involved in extraction of fossil fuels were found to produce harmful emissions which in turn lead to respiratory system diseases being, thus, extremely dangerous for the natural environment. For all the studied areas, the impact on the environment was found to be higher for land-based wind power plants than for an offshore wind farm.

The conversion of kinetic energy from wind and solar radiation into electricity during the operation of wind and photovoltaic power plants causes practically no emissions of chemical compounds that are harmful to the environment. However, the production of their materials and components, as well as their post-use management after the end of their operation, is highly consumptive of energy and materials. For this reason, this article aims to assess the life cycle of a wind and photovoltaic power plant in the context of the sustainable development of energy systems. The objects of the research were two actual technical facilities—a 2 MW wind power plant and a 2 MW photovoltaic power plant, both located in Poland. The analysis of their life cycle was carried out on the basis of the LCA (life-cycle assessment) method, using the ReCiPe 2016 calculation procedure. The impact of the examined renewable energy systems was assessed under 22 impact categories and 3 areas of influence (i.e., human health, ecosystems, and resources), and an analysis was conducted for the results obtained as part of three compartments (i.e., air, water, and soil). The life cycle of the wind power plant was distinguished by a higher total potential negative environmental impact compared to the life cycle of the photovoltaic power plant. The highest levels of potential harmful impacts on the environment in both life cycles were recorded for areas of influence associated with negative impacts on human health. Emissions to the atmosphere accounted for over 90% of all emissions in the lifetimes of both the wind and the photovoltaic power plants. On the basis of the obtained results, guidelines were proposed for pro-ecological changes in the life cycle of materials and elements of the considered technical facilities for renewable energy sources, aimed at better implementation of the main assumptions of contemporary sustainable development (especially in the field of environmental protection).

Using environmentally friendly materials in the technological process of bottle production fits perfectly into the idea of sustainable development. The use of natural raw materials as well as conscious energy consumption are strategic aspects that should be considered in order to improve the effectiveness of the bottle moulding process. This paper presents a new and structured approach to the analysis of uncertainty and sensitivity in life cycle assessment, one developed in order to support the design process of environmentally friendly food packaging materials. With regard to this “probabilistic” approach to life cycle assessment, results are expressed as ranges of environmental impacts, and alternative solutions are developed while offering the concept of input uncertainty and the effect thereof on the final result. This approach includes: (1) the evaluation of the quality of inputs (represented by the origin matrix); (2) the reliability of results and (3) the uncertainty of results (the Monte Carlo method). The use of the methodology is illustrated based on an experiment conducted with real data from the technological process of bottle production. The results provide insight into the uncertainty of life cycle assessment indicators regarding global warming, acidification and the use of arable fields and farmland.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the consumption of single-use packaging. Their material diversity is a significant barrier to recycling, causing overloading of landfills. Increasing negative environmental aspects have highlighted the need to develop solutions to achieve a relatively high efficiency of the bottle shaping process with the lowest possible energy consumption. The aim of the project is to try to describe the impact of this process on the state, transformation and development of the natural environment. The work concerns current issues of the impact of packaging on the natural environment. The main goal was to conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) of beverage bottles made of polylactide. The functional unit comprised a total of 1000 pieces of PLA bottles with a capacity of 1 L. The boundary of the adopted system included the steps from the delivery of the preforms to the production plant to their correct formation in the process of forming beverage bottles. Further stages of the production process were excluded from the system, such as beverage bottling, labeling, and storage and distribution. Processes related to transport and storage of raw material were also excluded. The LCA analysis was performed using the program of the Dutch company Pre Consultants called SimaPro 8.4.0. The ReCiPe 2016 method was chosen for the interpretation of the quantity of emitted substances into the natural environment. The test results were presented graphically on bar charts and subjected to verification and interpretation.

The assessment of engineering objects in terms of energy consumption is an important part of sustainable development. Many materials, including those from the energy sector, need to undergo earlier processing, e.g., grinding. Grinding processes still demand a significant amount of energy, whereas current energy assessment methods do not take into account important parameters of the process, which makes it difficult to choose their optimal values. The study presents the analysis, testing, and assessment of mechanical engineering systems in terms of the energy consumption involved in the grinding of biomass intended for energy production purposes. A testing methodology was developed to improve the parameters of multi-disc grinding, including the reduction of energy consumption, power input, product quality improvement, and process efficiency. An original model of integrated energy consumption was developed. Tests were carried out on a five-disc grinder for five programs to assess the programmable angular speeds of the grinder discs. Output values, including specific energy demand, fragmentation degree, and integrated energy consumption, were assigned to each testing program. The test results were subjected to statistical analysis. Based on the authors’ own research, it was found that the angular speed of the discs and, consequently, the linear speed of the grinding blades, have a significant influence on the values of the integrated energy consumption of the preliminary process.