Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to increase the knowledge of environmental impact associated with producing fabrics for hotel textile services. The project was carried out in two parts: studies on hotel textiles and on textile services in three major Scandinavian laundering companies. This paper presents the results of the hotel textile study. The environmental impact was studied by applying the main principles of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Life-cycle assessments provide useful information on the quantities of energy and resources consumed and emissions associated with production systems. The impact assessment is still under development but some scenarios have been made to describe possible local, regional and global environmental consequences of the system under study. The inventory calculations proved that cotton fibre production consumes about 40% less energy than polyester fibre production. Cotton growing requires, however, huge amounts of water: irrigated amounts vary from 7 to 29 tons per kg of raw cotton fibres. Pesticides and fertilizers used in traditional cotton cultivation have ecotoxic effects in contrast to organic cotton cultivation, where natural alternatives to agrochemicals are used. It could also be concluded that 50/50 CO/PES sheets in hotel use have fewer environmental impacts than 100% CO sheets. This is due to the higher durability as well as lower laundering energy requirements of 50/50 CO/PES sheets.