This paper describes a case study of the application of lifecycle
inventory analysis to automotive bumper recycling.
Two scenarios of bumper recycling are compared. One is
“bumper-to-bumper recycling,” in which we recycle bumpers
into more bumpers.The other is “cascade recycling,” in
which bumpers are recycled into different parts of a car with
a lower function. Inventory analysis is applied to both these
recycling scenarios by analyzing the stages of acquiring
natural resources, manufacturing materials, and parts, disposal,
and recycling.We chose air emission, solid waste, and
fossil fuel resources as items of the inventory analysis.We
quantified the effect of reductions in the environmental
load by recycling bumpers, and found that reductions in
the environmental load were larger with cascade recycling
than with bumper-to-bumper recycling based on current
conditions