Global Life Cycle Impact Assessments of Material Shifts The Example of a Lead-free Electronics Industry

Planet Earth is under stress from various environmental factors, increasing the importance of being able to estimate the environmental costs associated with dynamic material shifts. Such shifts are occurring in the electronics industry and the most famous recent example is the introduction of lead-free solders. Global Life Cycle Impact Assessments of Material Shifts describes the environmental implications of this shift to lead-free solders and conductive adhesives using the standardized methodology of environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA).

As the product systems involved are rather small for interconnection materials it is possible – using uncertainty analysis and consequential LCA – to arrive at robust conclusions, even in the difficult holistic field of environmental cost accounting. The lead-free shift has many implications, such as the export of electronics waste, resource consumption, recycling issues, and technology development.

LCA is rapidly developing to include more and more impact assessment, and refined weighting methods. In the end, the goal is to be able to quantify the environmental consequences of decisions and this book presents tools, data, and methodologies in detail. It provides an understanding of current technological shifts and the potential environmental consequences, along with several illustrative examples.

Global Life Cycle Impact Assessments of Material Shifts will benefit engineers and environmental experts within the electronics and materials industry, enabling them to assess the environmental costs of their own product systems.