The Growing Significance of Product Life-Spans as a Variable When Addressing Environmental Impacts

Abstract

The life-span of consumer durables has been attracting increased interest in recent years, prompted by concern about the need to reduce waste, improve resource efficiency, and create a low carbon, circular economy. This paper explores explanations for the growing interest and discusses its implications for industry and government. Recognizing the importance of debate around product longevity for environmental tools and techniques such as life cycle assessment (LCA), it explains the importance of distinguishing product lifetimes and life-spans from product life cycles. It argues that increased empirically-based knowledge of product lifetimes would reduce the risk of inaccurate assumptions being used in LCA studies, and describes the use of LCA studies to estimate the optimal replacement time for energy-using products in order to minimize environmental impacts. It then considers the significance of product life-spans for economic, environmental and social sustainability and the potential benefits to consumers of increased product longevity. The issues are sometimes complex and the paper notes a controversy around possible environmental trade-offs in cases where technology has enabled the development of more energy efficient products. Recent developments in knowledge and policy are explored, revealing a growing community of academic researchers who are actively seeking to improve understanding of product lifetimes. The final section of the paper traces recent studies commissioned by international agencies, government departments and public authorities which have been prompted by the European Commission’s Action Plan for the Circular Economy. These suggest a growing consensus around the need for a strategic shift from waste management to waste reduction and from the linear economy to the circular economy.