The Life Cycle of Stuff Beyond Recycling

The life cycle of a monarch butterfly

The life cycle of a product

What are the steps in the life cycle of a waffle iron?

Product Stewardship The Government requires producers of certain products to take responsibility for the life cycle management of their products, including collection and recycling

When we use raw materials or natural resources from the Earth, it has an IMPACT on our planet. To IMPACT means to influence or effect

Do a pair of jeans have an impact on our environment?

everything we use has a story looking at the life cycle of a product helps us understand how it impacts the planet

Clear-cutting Pesticide use Water use Erosion Habitat disruption What are some environmental impacts of growing crops (such as cotton)?

What are some environmental impacts of clear cutting ? (to make room for cotton crops) Habitat Destruction Erosion (soil loss) Changes to climate and to hydrological cycle

What are some environmental impacts of mining for minerals and coal, a fossil fuel? (used for chemicals on cotton) Habitat destruction Erosion Water pollution

What are some environmental impacts of drilling for oil, a fossil fuel? (Used to transport cotton) Habitat destruction Air pollution Water Pollution

Factories produce emissions when raw materials are turned into products (such as cotton into jeans!) by using heat, pressure, water and fossil fuels.

emissions are released (or emitted) into the air when fossil fuels are burned also called: air pollution, smoke, smog, greenhouse gases

Factories also produce liquid waste. This is called effluent

What are the environmental impacts of transportation? Fossil fuel use Emissions Habitat destruction

Do we buy more than we need? Do we use them fully? How often to we wash them? (using detergents creates effluent) Consumption

What are the environmental impacts of disposal? Emissions Habitat destruction Energy use

Everything we use has an impact on the Planet

Each pair of jeans has its own story The impact of our jeans can be larger or smaller depending on their life cycle

A company can make better choices and understand the impact of their product through a Life Cycle Assessment

What choices can we make to reduce the impact of our “stuff” on the Planet? * Buy recycled, or recyclable products (less waste) * Buy locally made materials (less transportation) * Reuse, repair and recycle (less need for ‘new’ stuff, and raw materials) * Buy Less!

Extra slides

Can we green our jeans?

Making Levi's® WaterLess Jeans Video om/watch?v=L9iO Uea46TU&feature =related A real life example of greening jeans! Can you hyper link this Dawn?:

Reducing the impact Products don’t always HAVE to co come from raw materials. How can we reduce the raw materials, energy and waste that goes into making new products?

We need many raw materials from many different countries Each of these raw materials has an impact on the planet To make a pair of jeans…