Assessment of resource efficiency in a life cycle perspective: the case of reuse

This work discusses how a life cycle based approach can be tailored for the assessment of resource efficiency of products, with a specific focus on reuse. A new method is introduced and illustrated on a washing machine case-study. While case-study results prove the environmental benefits of reusing the product, the study also highlights the limits of the LCA approach, as it lacks of robust and widely intelligible impact assessment categories, able to properly capture resource efficiency in a life cycle perspective. The article also provides suggestions for the enhancement of the resource efficiency assessment, as: development of new methods based on the life cycle approach; development of new life cycle impact assessment categories focused on resources; use of detailed inventory flows for specific materials in place of non-robust life cycle impact categories; integration of LCA with other methods (as material flow analysis).