EPDLA supports the European Commission's sustainable development agenda and also strives to help market participants become more sustainable. Here, data provide important indications of sustainability performance. Therefore, EPDLA has decided to update the existing average industry LCA.
On behalf of the European Polymer Dispersions and Latex Association (‘EPDLA’), Quantis International conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the following different families of aqueous polymer dispersions:
- Styrene butadiene (SB) covering “hot and cold” processes
- Styrene acrylate (SA)
- Pure acrylate (PA)
- Alkyds (AD)
- Polyvinyl acetate (VAH), it covers also copolymers like Vinyl acetate/Veova and Vinyl acetate / Acrylic
- Vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE)
- Polyurethane (PU)
The participating companies were Alberdingk Boley, Allnex, Arkema, BASF, Celanese, CH Polymers, Covestro, Dow, DSM, EOC, EPS, Omnova, Synthomer, Trinseo, Vinavil and Wacker Chemie. The main goal of the study was to understand the environmental impact of the considered polymer dispersion families better while considering also latest methodological developments from Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)1 . Furthermore, this LCA was to provide EPDLA with state-of-the-art Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) compliant with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, representing industry-average data for the aforementioned dispersion families produced in Europe.
LCIs help producers quantify the environmental impacts of their activities.