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.

During the conversion of solar radiation into electricity, photovoltaic installations do not emit harmful compounds into the environment. However, the stage of production and post-use management of their elements requires large amounts of energy and materials. Therefore, this publication was intended to conduct an eco-energy life cycle analysis of photovoltaic power plant materials and components based on the LCA method. The subject of the study was a 1 MW photovoltaic power plant, located in Poland. Eco-indicator 99, CED and IPCC were used as calculation procedures. Among the analyzed elements of the power plant, the highest level of negative impact on the environment was characterized by the life cycle of photovoltaic panels stored at the landfill after exploitation (the highest demand for energy, materials and CO₂ emissions). Among the materials of the power plant distinguished by the highest harmful effect on health and the quality of the environment stands out: silver, nickel, copper, PA6, lead and cadmium. The use of recycling processes would reduce the negative impact on the environment in the context of the entire life cycle, for most materials and elements. Based on the results obtained, guidelines were proposed for the pro-environmental post-use management of materials and elements of photovoltaic power plants.

Car tire manufacturing can be the cause of numerous environmental hazards. Harmful emissions from the production process are an acute danger to human health as well as the environment. To mitigate these unwanted consequences, manufacturers employ the eco-balance analysis at the product designing and development stage, when formulating general development strategies, and increasingly when investigating the entire product lifecycle management process. Since the negative effects of products are considered in a broader range of implications, it has become necessary to extend the traditional scope of analytical interest onto the production, use, and end-of-life stages. This work investigates the manufacturing of passenger car tires executed with traditional and modern manufacturing technologies. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of tires reported in this study involved three LCA methods: Eco-Indicator 99, Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and the scientific assessment methods developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Global Warming Potential (IPCC). LCA as a tool for environmental analysis can be carried out for the entire life cycle or its individual phases. The implementation of the work made it possible to demonstrate that as a result of the identification of the main sources of negative impacts, it is possible to propose ways to minimize these impacts in the car tire manufacturing process. The results indicate that the most damaging impact is the depletion of natural resources, which play a key role in the production process of car tires.

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.

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.

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.