Enviornmrntal Impact Assessment of Cutlery Manufacturing in Pakistan

Abstract

The world's manufacturing industries are under tremendous pressure to meet the demands of a growing number of people due to the rapid increase in population. Manufacturing sectors are essential to the development of any country, but they also have a significant negative impact on the environment. Because of its heat-resistant and thermosetting properties, melamine material is making a lasting impression in many manufacturing industries, even though there are health concerns related to it. It is necessary to conduct systematic measurements in order to evaluate and lessen these environmental repercussions. Therefore, a thorough environmental evaluation was conducted for a cutlery manufacturing facility located in Pakistan in order to close this study gap. SimaPro 9.5 was employed as the modeling software tool, and different midpoint and endpoint impacts were assessed using ReCipe 2016 techniques. The findings showed that compared to other manufacturing processes, injection molding had the greatest environmental impact. With values of 11.8 kg CO2 eq. and 12.0 kg 1,4- DCB, respectively, global warming and terrestrial ecotoxicity were the impact categories most impacted. The human health category suffered more damage at the endpoint level than others. Four distinct alternative scenarios were generated based on energy transition and technical process intervention. These scenarios were examined for their effects on the environment as well as for economic performance. In the first alternative scenario, the injection procedure was carried out using a double-cavity mold rather than a single-cavity mold. For a number of effect categories, this intervention reduced the impact by more than 30% when compared to the baseline scenario. The effects of global warming were decreased to 8.1 kg CO2 equivalent. Three more options were based on using an injection mold with a double or single cavity and either 50% or 100% solar energy. All things considered, the combination of 50% solar energy and double-cavity mold proved to be the most advantageous of the four possible situations. This alternative demonstrated a payback period of less than three years, a net present value of 21.8 million PKRs, and a reduction of more than 50% in most of the effect areas.