May 19-22, 2008
Baltimore MD
Life Cycle Analysis
Meets Cost Benefit Analysis
(in the Paint Aisle)
Jeff Cantin
jeff.cantin@erg.com
Bev Sauer
Franklin Associates
(a div. of ERG)
bsauer@fal.com
1
Latex Paint
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343 million gallons sold each year
64 million gallons left over
Average retail price: $20 per gallon
Cost to municipalities to manage as HHW:
$6.00 - $13.50 per gallon (PSI 2004)
“Largest volume material collected by most
household hazardous waste collection programs”
(EPA 2007)
2
Latex Paint

Basic ingredients
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Pigment – color, protection, filler
Resin (binder) – adhesion and film forming
Solvent – water
Co-solvents – alcohols, ethylene glycol
Additives
• Thickeners
• Fungicides and
preservatives
• Plasticizers
• Defoamers
10% extenders & additives
15% TiO2 pigment
25% acrylic binder
50% water
3
Latex Paint

Health and environmental concerns

Older paints may contain mercury or mercuric
compounds (banned in 1990) or lead (banned in 1978)
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Contain some solvents (ethylene glycol, glycol ethers)
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Bactericides may contain formaldehyde
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Toxic to fish (CA DFG 1990)
4
Latex Paint
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Disposal options
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Consumer confusion
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Liquid – not accepted for landfill disposal
Dried and solidified – nonhazardous, accepted at most
landfills
Water-based vs. oil-based?
OK to landfill?
How to dry or stabilize?
Result
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Substantial quantities brought to HHW collections
Mixture of latex and oil-based paint
5
Stewardship Opportunities
Product reformulation
Increasing Levels of
Stewardship
Eliminate health and
environmental concerns
Direct consumer
re-use
Consumer education
—Buy what you need
—Store properly
—Use it up
Collect and reuse/recycle
—Send offsite for recycling
—Onsite swap or blending
Dry and
dispose
as MSW
Return to retailer
—Send to recycler
—Send to manufacturer to be recycled
—Onsite blending, re-sale
Collect and downcycle
Landfill cover or fuel blending
6
Multistakeholder Process
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Product Stewardship Institute
National Paint and Coatings Association
4 paint recyclers
7 states, 18 municipalities
U.S. EPA
Paint Product Stewardship Initiative (PPSI)
www.productstewardship.us
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PPSI Projects
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Education Projects
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Infrastructure Projects
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Project #3 Paint Reuse Guidance Manual
Project #4 National Leftover Paint Infrastructure Model
Project #5 National Leftover Paint Infrastructure Cost Analysis
Market Projects
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Project #1 Leftover Paint Management Education Pilot
Project #2 Public Education Survey and Analysis
Project #6 Market Development Strategy
Project #7 Recycled Paint Marketing Guide for Distributors
Project #8 Recycled Paint Certification System
Other Projects
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Project #9 Health, Safety, Environmental & Regulatory Issues
Project #10 Financing System Research and Model Development
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Project #11 Lifecycle Balance of Costs and Benefits
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LCA / CBA of Leftover Latex Paint
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What are the lifecycle costs, benefits,
and environmental impacts of
alternative leftover paint management
schemes?
Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
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LCA / CBA of Leftover Latex Paint
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Scoping phase
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Define alternative leftover paint management methods
Define relevant categories of costs and benefits
Define the “functional unit” and “reference flow”
Define the system boundaries
Identify potential data sources
Identify data quality criteria
Analysis phase
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Data collection
LCA modeling
CBA modeling
LCA / CBA integration
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LCA Definition
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As defined in ISO 14040, a Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) is the “compilation
and evaluation of the inputs, outputs
and the potential environmental
impacts of a product system
throughout its life cycle.”
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LCA Process
Internationally accepted ISO standards (14040,
14044) provide the framework for conducting LCA:
1. Goal and Scope Definition
2. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
4. Interpretation of Results
Goal and scope defined in the first phase of the
paint project.
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Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
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The inventory is the basic
documentation process on which other
parts of an LCA are built.
General concept is simple: LCI is a
comprehensive input/output analysis or
environmental accounting system
Inputs of materials and energy
 Outputs of products and releases to air, water,
and land
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General Life Cycle Flow Diagram
Energy
Raw Materials
Acquisition
Wastes
Energy
Materials
Manufacture
Wastes
Energy
Product
Manufacture
Wastes
Energy
Energy
Product Use
or
Consumption
Final
Disposition:
Reuse, Recycle,
Landfill,
Incineration
Wastes
Reuse
Recycle
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Paint Management Methods
Consumer-based
Reuse
Consumer 1 gives paint directly to Consumer 2
Dry/stabilize and dispose
Consumer dries or stabilizes paint
Paint goes to landfill or incinerator as MSW
Collection-based
Reuse
Paint is brought to sort/swap facility
Accepted paint is made available in original container
Consolidation
Paint is brought to consolidation facility
Paints are sorted, blended, repackaged
Reprocessing
Paint is brought to reprocessing facility
Paints are sorted, blended, tested, repackaged
Virgin materials (additives) are used
Disposal
Paint is collected and disposed as waste
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Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
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Inventory of inputs/outputs from the inventory
phase are translated into potential impacts on
human health and the environment using
impact assessment (e.g., U.S. EPA TRACI)

Classification
• Inventory flows grouped into relevant impact categories
• Example: Global warming impact category includes carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, many other substances.

Characterization
• Within each category, normalize to common reference substance
• For global warming, each substance multiplied by its global warming
potential relative to carbon dioxide
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LCIA Limitations
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LCI does not track all the detailed information needed
to accurately assess actual impacts of emissions
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Individual release locations, concentrations
Direct and indirect exposure routes (inhalation, ingestion, dermal), etc.
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Aggregated life cycle emission quantities can
represent very different scenarios with different
impacts
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LCIA is not a replacement for toxicology or
risk assessment, but is a useful way to
condense long list of inventory flows to a set
of meaningful impact categories for
directional comparisons
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Value of LCA
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Comprehensive life cycle systems approach
ensures that important upstream and
downstream impacts are not overlooked
Provides quantitative information needed to
make informed decisions
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Baseline for tracking & measuring effect of changes for an
individual system
Comparisons of alternative designs, formulations, processes
Useful for internal and external purposes
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Internal process improvements and designs
Informing customers, stakeholders, or general public
Policy decisions
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Data Collection
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Surveyed HHW programs and paint
processors across the U.S. to gather data on:
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Quantities of paint collected
Incoming paint transportation (dropoff at facility, collection events)
Sorting
Processing of usable paint (swap shop, on-site consolidation, sent
off-site for reprocessing)
Disposal of unusable paint (bulking, landfill disposal of liquid and
dried paint, etc.)
Recycling or disposal of paint containers
Additional information/input from workgroup
and Infrastructure Report
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Model collection and processing system specifications and costs
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LCA Results
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Global warming
Acidification
Human health
– cancer
Human health
– non-cancer
Human health
– criteria air pollution
Eutrophication
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Ozone depletion
Ecotoxicity
Smog
Water use
Fossil fuel use
Total energy use
Mineral extraction
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CBA
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Account for all private and public costs
and benefits associated with each method
Determine which can be monetized
Consumers
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Time
Energy
Industry
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Storage
space
Government
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MSW
management
“Free” paint
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Promotion
Collection
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Avoided raw
materials
costs
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Avoided
impacts to
air, water,
land
Society
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Landfill
disposal
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Avoided use
of resources
Avoided
health
effects
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CBA
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Monetizing LCA impact categories
Stressor
Impact Category
Reference Units
Valuation Strategy
Cancer
kg Benzene equivalents
Avoided mortality
Non-cancer
kg Toluene equivalents
Avoided morbidity
Ecotoxicity
kg 2,4-D equivalents
Cost of remediation
Particulate matter
Cancer & non-cancer
kg PM2.5 equivalents
Avoided mortality and morbidity
Carbon dioxide, methane,
other GHGs
Global Warming
kg CO2 equivalents
Avoided costs of climate change
Nitrous oxides
Smog Formation
NOx equivalents
WTP for air clarity
Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides
Acidification
H+ moles equivalent
Avoided damage costs
Nitrogen, phosphorous
Eutrophication
kg N equivalents
Avoided treatment costs
Chlorofluorocarbons
Ozone depletion
kg CFC-11 equivalents
Fossil fuel depletion
surplus MJ
Water use
Liters Flow
Total energy use
MJ
Mineral extraction
MJ
Toxics
Not monetized
Resource Use
GHG = Greenhouse gas
WTP = Willingness to pay
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