15
votes
Are plastic cups more environmental friendly than ceramic mugs?
It's correct that the production of 1 ceramic mug requires much more material and energy than the production of 1 plastic cup, but this isn't a fair comparison. Plastic cups are generally used once or ...
- 14.5k
12
votes
Are plastic cups more environmental friendly than ceramic mugs?
You've pictured a disposable plastic cup. If you assume that you can use it a few times, then you might consider that you get through one a day. A ceramic cup lasts until you drop it. The cup in your ...
- 2,116
12
votes
Accepted
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
"To compare purely the electricity usage ... Desktops are clearly worse for the environment in this respect." — That certainly used to be the case, and still often is, but only because people buy/...
- 2,804
9
votes
Accepted
Is an electric shaver more sustainable than water-based shaving ? And how to determine so for one's context?
Your most sustainable choice is an old straight razor, but there's a reason the replacement is called a "safety razor"... you're much less likely to kill yourself with a safety razor. But these last a ...
- 1,307
8
votes
Environmental impact of toner versus ink cartridges?
Unless you're into printing color photos, the laser printer is the way to go. The retail prices of toner cartridges may seem a bit steep, but there are ways to refill them. The toner lasts a long long ...
- 559
7
votes
Accepted
What is more sustainable, using a mechanical pencil or a pen?
It is hard to say because there is such a wide variation in ink formulations. Also, no company is going to tell you what is in their ink, as they will consider that a trade secret. That being said, ...
- 862
6
votes
Is an electric shaver more sustainable than water-based shaving ? And how to determine so for one's context?
This will depend on where you live.
It is a question of energy;
First of all take into account the carbon footprint of the electric shaver relative to it's expected lifespan - this is likely to be ...
- 496
6
votes
Accepted
What is life cycle assessment best used for?
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is about assessing the environmental impacts of a product, process or service over it's full life cycle, so from production, usage and disposal. This assessment includes ...
- 14.5k
6
votes
What is an environmentally-conscious replacement for white yogurt?
Diversify
In a paper unearthed recently by our friend LShaver question, a key point is that the worst identified menace today is Biodiversity loss, beyond Nitrogen cycle disruption, and way beyond ...
- 1,407
5
votes
Accepted
What is the scrap value of wind renewables?
Executive summary
It's too early to tell what the resale value is, as contemporary turbine designs are not as old as the lifetime of a wind-turbine, so we have very little experience of the economic ...
- 14.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Environmental impact of using paper towels for hand drying
I was able to find several different news articles discussing this topic:
"Paper towels least green way of drying hands, study finds" - The Guardian
"Electric Hand Dryers vs. Paper Towels" - Slate
"...
- 11.8k
5
votes
Environmental impact of toner versus ink cartridges?
The question seems to be asking only about the environmental impact of the cartridges, so I probably shouldn't talk about how a laser printers use 100 times more power while they are printing, but ...
- 412
4
votes
Environmental impact of toner versus ink cartridges?
Inkjets are the Hummer of printers
If you care about the environment, give that inkjet printer to the next person you can find for whom your gift/sale will prevent them from buying a new inkjet.
...
4
votes
How do you identify what is sustainable without reverting to lists and other people's ideas?
The issue with answering this question is that there are inherent assumptions in how one creates a boundary for answering. For example, Voreno's answer suggests comparing two similar products in ...
4
votes
Accepted
What is the most commonly available eco-friendly writing instrument?
From least damage to most:
Wooden pencils. Provided the manufacturer is eco-friendly and uses wood from properly managed forests and non-toxic paints. Faber-Castell (just chosen because I happen to ...
- 56
3
votes
Accepted
What is the energy and greenhouse gas footprint of Skysource/Skywater water generator?
There's a little bit of information on their FAQ:
Energy ranges from less than .4KWH/Liter to over kWh depending upon climatic conditions.
And that's just as they've written it. The upper limit is ...
- 14.7k
3
votes
More sustainable pick-me-up: can of coke or cup of tea/coffee?
TL;DR -- The best option, per liter, is tea. Soda is about twice as "bad," and coffee is two times worse than that.
To compare the environmental impact of various beverages we need to perform a life-...
- 11.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What are the carbon emissions from the manufacture of the hybrid components of a Prius?
Update. In my original answer I inadvertently divided at one point when I should have multiplied -- I found the mistake thanks to comments from Frank and THelper. So here's a new tl;dr:
By mile 4,000 ...
- 11.8k
3
votes
Is an electric shaver more sustainable than water-based shaving ? And how to determine so for one's context?
One-piece safety razor with replaceable blades might be an option. They are vegan (unlike your Mach3) and you only throw out the blades (although I'm not sure that you can recycle them).
- 471
3
votes
What are freely available tools or databases for Lifecycle Assesment?
Various places with free LCA info/DBs seem to exist, but among them at least one I'm aware is large-scale and with a lot of free elements - plus relatively convenient:
OpenLCA is a Software combining ...
- 141
3
votes
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
To add some numbers to the discussion, I found
a white paper from Fujitsu about a desktop (2018)
production energy usage: 6.8 GJ or 450 kg CO2 equivalent
use phase energy usage: 9.2 GJ or 30 - 500 ...
2
votes
Accepted
Which is the most sustainable type of pencil?
When faced with a bunch of different vague tradeoffs like this go with a 'which has the lowest total cost of ownership?
Starting at that, then try to internalize the issues involved in making is ...
- 7,207
2
votes
How to determine whether hybrid cars are really more sustainable than traditional cars?
I find the site CarbonCounter.com, developed by MIT, useful in approaching this question. You can play around with some of the assumptions on e.g electricity supply, battery manufacture emissions and ...
- 174
2
votes
What is more sustainable, using a mechanical pencil or a pen?
There are two primary issues here, carbon and plastics.
I would expect carbon emissions to be higher for ink, but not significantly. Transport/logistics/retail would be similar for both products and ...
- 121
2
votes
More sustainable pick-me-up: can of coke or cup of tea/coffee?
Sustainability isn’t just about energy. It also involves other pollutants and water usage.
Tea uses 100 times the volume you drink to be produced. [1]
And according to this [2] it takes 65 times ...
2
votes
Accepted
Is there a recent life cycle analysis for cloth diaper and for disposable diaper?
There are several life cycle analyses, but none of them very recent:
This webpage links to a report on
life cycle analysis done by the UK Environment Agency, originally in 2005 and updated in 2008. ...
- 14.5k
2
votes
how to normalize all the LCA impacts?
For normalization you always calculate relative to some reference value. Your reference value is in kg CO2e, so I take it you are calculating global warming potential (greenhouse gases). If a ...
- 14.5k
1
vote
What is the most commonly available eco-friendly writing instrument?
Hmm. Opinion only, based on their use.
Based on the amount of time I can use them, not counting losing them.
Fountain pens. The rubber bladder ones that you could refill from an inkwell. A ...
- 7,207
1
vote
Discretionary Carbon Footprint vs. Per-capita footprint
I found one study, The role of trade in the greenhouse gas footprints of EU diets, which performs a comparative analysis of consumption-based emissions vs. production-based emissions. It had something ...
- 2,849
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