Death of a Dream Cafeteria

An amusing Los Angeles Times opinion article talks about the failed green experiment that was the U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria.  (And here's a 2008 New York Times article about the cafeteria when the experiment was underway.)  As the L.A. Times article is primarily interested in proving one political party right and the other wrong, it doesn't fully demonstrate why the attempt to make the cafeteria environmentally friendly failed.  But it does show that there's a lot more work to be done in researching and properly adopting green technology.

Just because we can make plates and flatware biodegradable doesn't mean that doing so is always feasible, cost-effective, or even the most planet-friendly option.  We have to consider the environmental and economic cost of creating, transporting, using, and disposing biodegradable goods.  That's where life cycle analysis comes in.  If a business establishment advertises green products or services, it should display the life cycle analyses of both conventional and green options to demonstrate that, in the end, its green program is truly green.  The mere appearance of going green is not enough; you have to do your homework.

The article also makes me wonder why the House cafeteria doesn't simply use china and silverware rather than disposable stuff.  If the cafeteria used china and silverware, its environmental cost would be in heat, water usage, and sewage production caused by dishwashers and dryers.  This cost, while not negligible, might compare favorably against the cost of incineration.

Let's Life Cycle Analyze Everything

Consumer products already undergo some testing, generally to meet governmental regulations or a recognized set of standards.  This testing is done to ensure that the product attains a level of quality and does not pose an unacceptable risk of injuring the user.  But there is a risk from these products that is being overlooked: the environmental risk.

Some companies perform life cycle analyses of their products, attempting to quantify all environmental impacts of a product from cradle to grave.  A life cycle analysis examines, among other things, the environmental impact of the following phases in a product's life:

• Extraction and transport of materials used to make the product
• Manufacture and transport of the product
• Use of the product, including maintenance, repair, and storage
• Disposal of the product by consumer
• Destruction of the product through landfilling, incineration, or recycling

Life cycle analysis can reveal surprising facts about how a product impacts the environment.  Unfortunately, life cycle analysis is not widespread among industry, and the companies that practice it usually do not do so on a regular basis.

As the American economy recovers and our manufacturing sector is hopefully renewed, it would make sense to adopt industry-wide life cycle analysis practices now--not to wait until we're "ready."  If all products were to undergo life cycle analysis, the vast amount of information, processed by our vast computing power, can reveal areas of improvement that can be addressed in methods more easy and efficient than traditional methods of environmental remediation such as emissions reduction.  The life cycle analysis data can be made available to the public and can lead to a new, product-level movement in environmental stewardship.

As consumers, we all buy stuff, keep it in our house, and dispose of it in our environment.  It would be useful to know how everything, from our ballpoint pens to our plasma TVs, affect the environment from cradle to grave.