Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Aspects of Solvatten, a Water Cleaning Device

Abstract: Solvatten is a water cleaning device for households in developing countries. As a Master Thesis forthe Master of Science in Engineering Programme at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan a Life CycleAssessment of Solvatten has been conducted. The primary aim was to investigate the environmentalimpacts of Solvatten and compare it with two other common methods of accessing safe water;boiling and bottled water. Information has been gathered by contacting manufacturers and suppliersand analysed in the computer software SimaPro. The stand-­‐alone LCA of Solvatten showed that theproduct gives almost no impact on ecosystem quality and human health. As the product mostly ismade of different plastic materials (i.e. fossil fuels), Solvatten has its highest impact in the damagecategory of resources. Hence, most of Solvatten’s environmental impact comes from the materialsand production processes of the black container and the transparent lid. The disposal phase ofSolvatten has been left out of the data analysis as there is a large uncertainty in waste scenarios ofdeveloping countries. Instead, a comparison was made between three different waste scenarios;landfill, incineration, and recycling with European standards. It is clear that recycling is the bestalternative, and Solvatten should show their corporate social responsibility by organizing this. Thecomparative studies conducted for Solvatten, boiling water with firewood and buying bottled waterindicated that due to Solvatten’s long lifetime, the environmental impact for Solvatten is lower. Alsodiscussed in the report are the economic and social aspects of Solvatten, which are a great advantagefor Solvatten since both time and money can be saved. Solvatten is concluded to be a goodalternative for accessing safe water.