Life cycle assessment of sound insulation solution made from waste paper

Buildings notably contribute to global environmental negative impacts due to con-sumption of both embodied energy and natural resources as well as various emissions during their whole life cycle. It is therefore necessary to develop practices to reduce these impacts, mainly by reducing the part of non-renewable resource in material as well as by ensuring the lowest energy consumption possible during their lifetime. For instance, the use of recycled raw materials can lead to significant improvement in building environmental impact. In this context, the Life Cycle in Practice (LCiP) project helps SMEs to reduce the environmental impacts of their products and services across the entire life cycle. Within the frame of this project, Pan-Terre (BE) Acoustix panel impact is evaluated in a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). Evaluation of environmental performance is needed to support both the design and the production of waste based insulation solutions. Manufactured for the last twenty past years, the Acoustix Pan-Terre panel is designed for airborne sound insulation in walls and or floors. This product can only be obtained by mixing in a sensible way two raw materials from cellulose origin, recycled paper and broken shives of flax. Functional unit is 1 m² of panel ready for shipping. Acoustix panels are made by pressing a mix of cellulose from waste paper, flax shives and water. Scraps materials are entirely recycled in the process. Flax cultivation has a favourable impact on the climate change indicator due to carbon dioxide uptake for the photosynthesis occurring during the plant growth. But the drying of the panels is largely contributing to fossil fuel depletion and climate change due to natural gas burners. Life Cycle Assessment of Acoustix sound insulating panels ready to ship highlights some improvements that can be made by optimisation of the drying technology and the (partial) replacement of natural gas burners by alternative fuel burners (such as waste paper and scrap materials). Data are processed in SimaPro 8.1 software, with Ecoinvent 3 and ELCD 3 databases, and analyzed with the CML IA method. This method is compliant with the indicators required by EN15804 standard in order to communicate on the environmental performance of Acoustix panels.LCiP - Life Cycle in Practiv