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10.2.1Life cycle assessment

AQA GCSE Chemistry (8462), Higher tier · Using resources › Life cycle assessment and recycling

Practise Life cycle assessment. 14 exam-style questions on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.

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Sample questions

Written for this site in the style of AQA exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.

Question 1Easy4 marks
Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are carried out to assess the environmental impact of products.
(a) Which of these is not one of the stages assessed in an LCA?
Tick (✓) one box.[1]
  • Extracting and processing raw materials
  • Manufacturing and packaging
  • Advertising the product
  • Disposal at the end of its useful life
(b) Give two things that can be measured fairly easily in an LCA.[2]
(c) Explain why an LCA is not a purely objective process.[1]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a) Answer: Advertising the product
(b)
  • use of water
  • use of resources / raw materials
  • use of energy (sources)
  • production of (some) wastes
(c)
  • allocating numerical values to the effects of pollutants requires value judgements
Question 2Medium5 marks
A company selling disposable nappies used an LCA in an advertisement. The LCA included only the use and disposal stages.
(a) Suggest why this LCA could be misleading.[2]
(b) Suggest who should carry out an LCA so that the results can be trusted.[1]
(c) Transport and distribution are included at each stage of an LCA.
Explain why transport adds to the environmental impact of a product.[1]
(d) Explain why it is difficult to give numerical values to the effects of pollutants in an LCA.[1]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)
  • it leaves out stages (e.g. extracting raw materials, manufacturing, transport) that may have large environmental impacts
  • selective / shortened LCAs can be used to reach a pre-determined conclusion (e.g. to support advertising claims)
(b)
  • an independent organisation / scientists with no connection to the company
(c)
  • vehicles burn fuels, releasing carbon dioxide / pollutants (and using finite resources)
(d)
  • deciding how harmful different pollutants are requires value judgements / effects are difficult to measure and compare
Question 3Hard3 marks
Streaming a film uses a data centre and a network for a few hours. Buying a DVD requires manufacturing a plastic disc and case, printing packaging, and transporting the product to a shop.
Suggest what should be included in a fair life cycle comparison of streaming a film once with buying and watching a DVD once.[3]
Show the answer and mark scheme
  • the DVD's assessment should include raw materials (crude oil for the plastic), manufacturing, packaging, transport / distribution to shops, and disposal of the disc and packaging
  • streaming's impact should include the energy used by data centres to store and transmit the file, and the energy used by the network and the viewer's own device, which are often overlooked
  • the comparison also depends on how many times each is watched: a DVD watched many times spreads its one-off environmental cost, while streaming has a running cost every time

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