Browsing by Keyword "Minerals"
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Item EXPLORE THE BRIEFCASE - LEARNING ABOUT RAW MATERIALS THROUGH NON-CONVENTIONAL TEACHING TOOLS(2019) Mezga, Kim; Vrhovnik, Petra; Šolaja, Dragana; Gullón, Lidia; Pranjić, Alenka Mauko; Uriarte, Ainara Garcia; ECONOMÍA CIRCULARWe live in a material world where the markets are flooded with all kinds of products. At the same time, we are facing a population growth, as well as a product demand growth. But, are we aware of the raw materials needed for our favourite daily products? In which part of the world are they extracted? Do we recognize the value chains from the mine to the product? And, where do these products end up after we use them? Many school curriculums include this topic only briefly, thus there is a need to raise awareness among youngsters about mining and raw materials in general. EIT RawMaterials funded by the European Commission, is the largest community dealing with raw materials in Europe. One of its main objectives is to raise awareness among general public about the raw materials and their indispensability, about the consequences of their uses, about the mining and production systems as well as about the utilization and recycling. Innovative and attractive pathways are employed in the process. One of the projects bringing raw materials and mining closer to pupils is the BRIEFCASE project. Using non-conventional teaching methods, tools and guided workshops, the project provides pupils with a unique hands-on experience. It draws their attention to raw materials and their applications and helps pupils recognize minerals in products we use every day. Besides emphasizing the importance of minerals in our everyday life and addressing sensible issues like conflict minerals, the consequences of our purchase decisions, the sustainability of mining operations and their environmental implications are also presented.Item Top-down characterization of resource use in LCA: from problem definition of resource use to operational characterization factors for dissipation of elements to the environment(2020-11) van Oers, Lauran; Guinée, Jeroen B.; Heijungs, Reinout; Schulze, Rita; Alvarenga, Rodrigo A.F.; Dewulf, Jo; Drielsma, Johannes; Sanjuan-Delmás, David; Kampmann, Tobias C.; Bark, Glenn; Uriarte, Ainara Garcia; Menger, Pierre; Lindblom, Mats; Alcon, Lucas; Ramos, Manuel Sevilla; Torres, Juan Manuel Escobar; ECONOMÍA CIRCULARPurpose: The methods for assessing the impact of using abiotic resources in life cycle assessment (LCA) have always been heavily debated. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of a common understanding of the problem related to resource use. This article reports the results of an effort to reach such common understanding between different stakeholder groups and the LCA community. For this, a top-down approach was applied. Methods: To guide the process, a four-level top-down framework was used to (1) demarcate the problem that needs to be assessed, (2) translate this into a modeling concept, (3) derive mathematical equations and fill these with data necessary to calculate the characterization factors, and (4) align the system boundaries and assumptions that are made in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) model and the life cycle inventory (LCI) model. Results: We started from the following definition of the problem of using resources: the decrease of accessibility on a global level of primary and/or secondary elements over the very long term or short term due to the net result of compromising actions. The system model distinguishes accessible and inaccessible stocks in both the environment and the technosphere. Human actions can compromise the accessible stock through environmental dissipation, technosphere hibernation, and occupation in use or through exploration. As a basis for impact assessment, we propose two parameters: the global change in accessible stock as a net result of the compromising actions and the global amount of the accessible stock. We propose three impact categories for the use of elements: environmental dissipation, technosphere hibernation, and occupation in use, with associated characterization equations for two different time horizons. Finally, preliminary characterization factors are derived and applied in a simple illustrative case study for environmental dissipation. Conclusions: Due to data constraints, at this moment, only characterization factors for “dissipation to the environment” over a very-long-term time horizon could be elaborated. The case study shows that the calculation of impact scores might be hampered by insufficient LCI data. Most presently available LCI databases are far from complete in registering the flows necessary to assess the impacts on the accessibility of elements. While applying the framework, various choices are made that could plausibly be made differently. We invite our peers to also use this top-down framework when challenging our choices and elaborate that into a consistent set of choices and assumptions when developing LCIA methods.