Life cycle analysis

On average, each retreaded earthmover tire saves the equivalent of one car on the road for a year.

In fact, each retreaded tire saves 80% of the greenhouse gases produced by the production of a new tire.

What is a Life Cycle Analysis?

The four phases of a Life Cycle Analysis are :

 

Definition of objectives and scope of study: This phase is used to define the objectives and scope of study in order to clearly state the motivations for carrying out this LCA and the target audience, as well as the product studied, the functional unit (the unit declared in this LCA), the system boundaries and other methodological choices.
Inventory analysis: An inventory of the system’s input and output flows is carried out using a combination of primary and secondary data collected for each of the system’s processes.
Impact assessment: The aim of this phase is to convert the inventory data into environmental impacts, using characterization factors derived from an impact assessment method.
Interpretation: This phase includes an assessment of data quality, a contribution analysis, a sensitivity analysis, a discussion of limitations, as well as suggestions for improvement and possible updating of the LCA.

Why conduct a Life Cycle Analysis?

In order to assess the potential environmental benefits of its tire retreading service, LanOTR wishes to quantify the environmental impacts of its retreaded earthmover tires by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and compare them with those associated with the production of new tires.

 

The main objective of this LCA is to quantify the environmental impacts of the life cycle of LanOTR’s retreaded earthmover tires. The analysis was carried out by CT consultant, a firm accredited to ISO 14040:2006 [1] and ISO 14044:2006.

Retreading a tire at LanOTR is equivalent to saving 3.11 times the weight of the tire in greenhouse gases.

Repairing a tire at LanOTR is equivalent to saving 3.71 times the weight of the tire in greenhouse gases.

Results of the LanOTR Life Cycle Analysis

After analyzing the table, we can see that:

 

  • The manufacture of a tire produces an average of 3.91 times its weight in greenhouse gases. For example, the production of a 20.5R25 tire weighing 550 lbs produces 2,150 lbs of greenhouse gases.*
  • Retreading a tire at LanOTR produces 0.8 times its weight in greenhouse gases. For example, retreading a 20.5R25 tire weighing 550 lbs produces 440 lbs of greenhouse gases.
  • Repairing a tire at LanOTR produces 0.26 times its weight in greenhouse gases. For example, repairing a 20.5R25 tire weighing 550 lbs, produces 110 lbs of greenhouse gases.**

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* These data are subject to any new studies carried out following our analysis.
** Repair data are our extrapolation of retreading data.