Comparativo da avaliação de ciclo de vida de três calçados esportivos

Abstract

The footwear industry is one of the oldest in the world and even in ancient time humans have used rudimentary forms of shoes what eventually made the production of these items a form of business. Currently it plays a crucial role in the life of modern man. In 2010 the world produced and sold more than 25 billion pairs of shoes, most countries with emerging economy. Faced with this huge demand is growing concern about the possible environmental impacts. In this context, environmental performance assessment methodologies can be used by product developers in their choices of materials and more environmentally friendly processes and motivate the consumer to purchase the product and serving as a marketing tool. Therefore, this work presents an evaluation and comparison of the environmental performance of specific sportive shoes production system where three different scenario were tested, distinguished from materials selection, polyurethane canvas, jeans, and recycled denim canvas. The production systems environmental performances were evaluated by the life cycle assessment methodology (NBR NBR ISO14040 and ISO14044) from cradle to gate, including the acquisition / production of raw materials for fabric production and its processing; transportation to the company; production of leather (sewing) and transportation of waste. The CML 2001 method was used for the evaluation, and considered impacts: Climate change 100a; Potential eutrophication; Potential acidification; Ecotoxicity, human, land, fresh water and marine. The chosen functional unit was 3000 pairs of shoes / year, referring to the average annual production of each shoe by Villaget company, Novo Hamburgo / RS, where production data were collected. Monte Carlo simulation was used to access the uncertainty of impacts for each product system and subsequently the TukeyHSD test with 95% significance and null hypothesis of equality of environmental impacts. The burning and firewood extraction for Jeans production are the most striking processes in the production of canvas shoes jeans. The production difenilmetilenoisocianato used in the production of polyurethane is the main impacting process in the production of polyurethane leather. The shoes from the canvas recycled jeans presents as more impactful processes involved in the production of electricity. Potential for eutrophication, marine ecotoxicity and drinking water are statistically equal to the three product systems. The polyurethane shoes had the worst results in the other impacts, except in human toxicity in the Jeans shown the worst.