What Is a Life Cycle Assessment Study?
A Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from cradle to grave.
It includes raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and finally disposal or recycling.
A Life Cycle assessment can help politicians and environmentalists get the best possible information when evaluating e.g. environmental legislation.
Basically an LCA study evaluates all environmental aspects of a specific choice. When it comes to ELTs for example, the LCA will help assess whether it is more environmentally sound to recycle the ELTs or to burn them in cement kilns.