In Belgium, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not very aware of the possibility of integrating the life cycle concept in the development of products.``Ecodesign'' is more a topic of interest for larger companies. In this context, the Flemish Government, more specifically the Public Waste Agency of the Flemish Region (OVAM), launched a demonstration project, which aimed to check whether SMEs are capable of taking account of the environmental aspects of their products over the entire life cycle and creating more environment-friendly products. The results of this project in the participating companies were fairly positive. However, the project also showed that there are several factors that influence the failure or success of ecodesign in a company. To screen the ecodesign potential of a company, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) developed a tool, called the``Quick Scan''. Another conclusion of the demonstration project was that a very important success factor for an ecodesign project is the tool the company applies to analyse the environmental impacts of the product over the entire life cycle. Anticipating this problem, Vito developed a selection scheme that allows a company to select the most appropriate tool for the environmental analysis of their products, based on a number of criteria.
Background, aim, and scope At the request of the Public Waste Agency for the Flemish Region, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research performed a life cycle assessment (LCA), according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14040 procedures (ISO 1997, 1998, and ISO 2006, followed by an eco-efficiency analysis of four alternative types of drinking cups for use at public events. The results of the LCA study served as input for the eco-efficiency analysis in which the costs related to the four cup systems were studied and combined with the environmental impacts. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the current environmental impacts and costs related to existing systems for drinking cups at public events in Flanders (Belgium) in order to outline a well-founded policy with regard to this subject. Since the results of this comparative study are publicly available, a critical review was performed according to ISO 14040 (review by interested parties, using a review panel) after each stage (goal and scope, data inventory, impact analysis/ interpretation, eco-efficiency analysis) during the study.
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