Development of a Set of Criteria as an Eco-Design Tool for Evaluation of Environmental Impact of Material Choice

Eco-design is part of the product design process aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of products during their entire lifecycle. Nowadays, the eco-design concept becomes more and more important, and it is also incorporated in the latest developments in legislation. However, with regard to the implementation of eco-design, many guidelines and tools still focus on the strategic level, but the practical tools are underdeveloped. In order to promote eco-design in the industry, there is a need for the further development of more practical tools, taking into account the scientific findings, but also making them applicable into a product design process. The intention of this paper is to present major considerations in order to develop a set of criteria for the material choice taking into account LCA studies and available data regarding environmental performance of materials. The proposed criteria system is based on three main criteria - toxicity, energy, recyclability, which corresponds to the main impact areas of material choice according to findings from the published LCA studies. These criteria are also linked to each other - e.g. with increasing recyclability one can decrease the energy content, as well as the toxic dispersion. The important innovation in this list of criteria would be that the product design - product structure -and use patterns (incl. end of life scenario) is linked to energy content, recyclability and toxicity. The next step would be development of the quantifiable values of this criteria system (expressed in 5 units), in order to make it more applicability of a quick screening tool in the product design process.