Introduction:
Scotch Brite Heavy Duty Scouring Pads and S.O.S Steel Wool Pads are utilized to remove tough debris that soap and water alone cannot remove. The two products are compared for this analysis because very similar products are used at my workplace, so reliable assumptions may be made about the life span of the products. For this analysis, the product that produces the least amount of non-recyclable waste will be considered the most environmentally friendly. A quantitative analysis of how much (by mass) solid waste is produced by the disposal of the used products concludes which product produces less waste.
Steel Wool:
Material Extraction: The material needed for creating steel and eventually steel wool is iron ore. This ore is mined with heavy equipment and then transported to a smelting plant to be turned into steel.
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| Figure 1: S.O.S Steel Wool Pads (Amazon.com) |
Product Manufacture: Today, “most modern steel plants use what's called a basic oxygen furnace to create steel,” (Brain & Lamb) This process blows oxygen into molten iron to remove the impurities and reduce the carbon concentration to about .5 to 1.5 percent. Through the use of various machine processes, the steel is turned into steel wire, then thinned down and made stronger. This steel wire is then sent through the steel cutting machine, in which “The attached blades move against the wires, shaving the wire to generate thinner fiber-like wires of steel,” (How Product Are Made.) These blades are coated with oil to reduce friction. This razor thin wire is then collected and compacted and cut into appropriate sizes.
Packaging/Transportation: The steel wool pads are then placed into a recyclable cardboard package and shipped off via truck to the appropriate retail stores.
Product Use: The product is utilized by cleaning various surfaces before it loses its effectiveness and is discarded.
End of Life: The cardboard packaging can be recycled. The steel wool itself, once it is ineffective, is put into a landfill.
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| Figure 2: S.O.S Steel Wool LCA Flow Diagram |
Scouring pads:
Material Extraction: The materials for scouring pads are plastics such as nylon 66. This material is synthetically prepared from processing crude oil. This produces chemical by-products such as nitrous oxide which is “a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2,” (Nylon 6 and Nylon 6, 6,) and various plastic scraps.
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| Figure 3: Scotch Brite Heavy Duty Scouring Pads (Amazon.com) |
Product Manufacture: Scouring pads are made from “molten or very viscous chemical compositions” and formed “into a lofty, dense nonwoven web,” (Patent US5756161.) In this case, the polymers are not woven together to form the pads, but are rather bonded together through high temperatures and pressures on the lines of polymers. Then, the long sheet of pad is cut into appropriate sizes.
Packaging/Transportation: The scouring pads are then packaged in recyclable cardboard and shipped off to their appropriate destinations.
Product Use: The product is utilized by cleaning various surfaces before it loses its effectiveness and is discarded.
End of Life: The cardboard packaging can be recycled. Once used up, the scouring pads must be sent to a landfill.
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| Figure 4: Scotch Brite Heavy Duty Scouring Pads LCA Flow Diagram |
Product waste sent to landfill:
From firsthand experience at a local restaurant, the steel wool pads last about two weeks, and the heavy duty scouring pads only last about one week.
Steel Wool:
Twelve steel wool pads weigh approximately .63 pounds (S.O.S Steel Wool Soap Pads.) For this analysis, assume that each steel wool pad lasts 2 weeks, and that all mass ends up in the landfill.
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Scouring Pads:
Three scouring pads weigh approximately .1 pounds (Scotch Brite Heavy Duty Scouring Pads.) For this analysis, assume that each scouring pad lasts 1 week, and that all mass ends up in the landfill.
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Conclusion:
| Table 1: Product Life Cycle’s Compared |
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Steel wool pads remain more environmentally friendly than scouring pads when the mass of waste sent to a landfill is the determining factor. This is mainly due to the fact that even though the steel wool pads weigh more, they produce less waste on average because they last longer than do the heavy duty scouring pads. To further this conclusion, the processes that produce the polymers in scouring pads produce chemical by-products that are very toxic for the environment, such as nitrous oxide. Steel wool mainly produces solid metals and CO2 as its by-products, which also makes it more environmentally friendly than scouring pads.
Works Cited:
Amazon. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Brite-Heavy-Scouring-Count/dp/B003FYJ83S
Amazon. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.amazon.com/Clorox-Count-S-O-S-Steel-Wool/dp/B0009P687K
Brain, M., & Lamb, R. (n.d.). How Iron and Steel Work. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved October 27, 2014, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/iron4.htm
How Products Are Made. (n.d.). How steel wool is made. Retrieved October 29, 2014, from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Steel-Wool.html
Nylon 6 and Nylon 6, 6. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2014, from http://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/nylon-6-and-nylon-66/
Patent US5756161 - Scouring pad and process for making same. (n.d.). Google Books. Retrieved October 30, 2014, from http://www.google.com/patents/US5756161
Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scour Pads, 3pk. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-Brite-Heavy-Duty-Scour-Pads-3pk/13281595
S.O.S® Steel Wool Soap Pads. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.cloroxprofessional.com/products/sos-steel-wool-soap-pads/msds/