Life cycle environmental evaluation of kettles: Recommendations for the development of eco-design regulations in the European Union

Alejandro Gallego-Schmid; Harish Kumar Jeswani; Joan Manuel F Mendoza; Adisa Azapagic

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.262

Life cycle environmental evaluation of kettles: Recommendations for the development of eco-design regulations in the European Union

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jun 1:625:135-146. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.262. Epub 2017 Dec 27.

Authors

Alejandro Gallego-Schmid¹, Harish Kumar Jeswani², Joan Manuel F Mendoza², Adisa Azapagic²

Affiliations

¹ Sustainable Industrial Systems, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. Electronic address: alejandro.gallegoschmid@manchester.ac.uk.
² Sustainable Industrial Systems, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.

PMID: 29288999
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.262

Abstract

Between 117 and 200 million kettles are used in the European Union (EU) every year. However, the full environmental impacts of kettles remain largely unknown. This paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment of conventional plastic and metallic kettles in comparison with eco-kettles. The results show that the use stage contributes 80% to the impacts. For this reason, the eco-kettle has over 30% lower environmental impacts due to a greater water efficiency and related lower energy consumption. These results have been extrapolated to the EU level to consider the implications for proposed eco-design regulations. For these purposes, the effects on the impacts of durability of kettles and improvements in their energy and water efficiency have been assessed as they have been identified as two key parameters in the proposed regulations. The results suggest that increasing the current average durability from 4.4 to seven years would reduce the impacts by less than 5%. Thus, improving durability is not a key issue for improving the environmental performance of kettles and does not justify the need for an eco-design regulation based exclusively on it. However, improvements in water and energy efficiency through eco-design can bring relevant environmental savings. Boiling the exact amount of water needed would reduce the impacts by around a third and using water temperature control by further 2%-5%. The study has also considered the effects of reducing significantly the number of kettles in use after the UK (large user of kettles) leaves the EU and reducing the excess water typically boiled by the consumer. Even under these circumstances, the environmental savings justify the development of a specific EU eco-design regulation for kettles. However, consumer engagement will be key to the implementation and achievement of the expected environmental benefits.

Keywords: Durability; Electrical and electronic equipment; Energy and water efficiency; European regulation; Life cycle assessment (LCA); Resource consumption.