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WARM Material Definitions
| WARM Material | WARM Data Source Definition | Source | Year | Title/Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum Cans | Aluminum cans represent cans produced out of sheet rolled aluminum ingot. | PE Americas | 2010 | Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Aluminum Beverage Cans | |
| Aluminum Ingot | Aluminum ingot is processed from molten aluminum in the form of a sheet ingot suitable for rolling, extruding, or shape casting. Thus, it serves as a pre-cursor to manufacture of aluminum products such as aluminum cans. It can serve as a proxy for certain aluminum materials such as electrical transmission and distribution wires, other electrical conductors, some extruded aluminum products, aluminum product cuttings, joinings and weldings, and consumer durable products such as home appliances, computers, and electronics. | Aluminum Association | 2011 | Copy of Data for ICF-EPA_Nd.xls. Spreadsheet updated by Neil D'Souza, PE International for ICF International and EPA in response to Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Aluminum Beverage Cans | |
| PE Americas | 2010 | Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Aluminum Beverage Cans | |||
| Steel Cans | Steel cans represent three-piece welded cans produced from sheet steel which is made in a blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (for virgin cans) or electric arc furnace (for recycled cans). | Franklin Associates | 1998 | Background Document A: A Life Cycle Inventory of Process and Transportation Energy for Eight Different Materials | |
| Copper Wire | Copper wire is used in various applications including power transmission and generation lines, building wiring, telecommunication, and electrical and electronic products. | Franklin Associates | 2002 | Energy and Greenhouse Gas Factors for Personal Computers: Final Report | |
| Glass | Glass represents glass containers (e.g., soft drink bottles and wine bottles) | EPA | 2008 | MSW Facts and Figures, which is where our generation data come from. | |
| HDPE | HDPE (high-density polyethylene) is usually labeled plastic code #2 on the bottom of the container, and refers to a plastic often used to make bottles for milk, juice, water and laundry products. It is also used to make plastic grocery bags. | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6056 | |
| LDPE | LDPE (Low-density polyethylene), usually labeled plastic code #4, is often used to manufacture plastic dry cleaning bags. LDPE is also used to manufacture some flexible lids and bottles. | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6057 | |
| PET | PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) is typically labeled plastic code #1 on the bottom of the container. PET is often used for soft drink and disposable water bottles, but can also include other containers or packaging. | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6058 | |
| LLDPE | LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) is used in high-strength film applications. Compared to LDPE, LLDPE's chemical structure contains branches that are much straighter and closely aligned, providing it with a higher tensile strength and making it more resistant to puncturing or shearing. | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6059 | |
| PP | PP (Polypropylene) is used in packaging, automotive parts, or made into synthetic fibres. It can be extruded for use in pipe, conduit, wire, and cable applications. PP's advantages are a high impact strength, high softening point, low density, and resistance to scratching and stress cracking. A drawback is its brittleness at low temperatures | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council. | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6060 | |
| PS | GPPS has applications in a range of products, primarily domestic appliances, construction, electronics, toys, and food packaging such as containers, produce baskets, and fast food containers (ICIS, 2011d). | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6061 | |
| PVC | PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) is produced as both rigid and flexible resins. Rigid PVC is used for pipe, conduit, and roofing tiles, whereas flexible PVC has applications in wire and cable coating, flooring, coated fabrics, and shower curtains. | Franklin Associates, American Chemistry Council | 2010 | Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastic Resins and Two Polyurethane Precursors. Revised Final Report http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1593&DID=6062 | |
| PLA | Polylactic acid or PLA is a thermoplastic biopolymer constructed entirely from annually renewable agricultural products, e.g., corn, and used in manufacturing fresh food packaging and food service ware such as rigid packaging, food containers, disposable plastic cups, cutlery, and plates | Natureworks, LLC | 2010 | Technical data sheets by Application. | |
| U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database | 2010 | Data Module Report: NatureWorks Polylactide Biopolymer (Ingeo). | |||
| Corrugated Containers | Corrugated cardboard boxes made from containerboard (liner and corrugating medium) used in packaging applications. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Magazines/Third-class Mail | Third Class Mail is now called Standard Mail by the U.S. Postal Service and includes catalogs and other direct bulk mailings such as magazines, which are made of coated, shiny paper. This category represents coated paper produced from mechanical pulp. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Newspaper | Newspaper represents uncoated paper made from 70% mechanical pulp and 30% chemical pulp. For the carbon sequestration portion of the factor, it was assumed that the paper was all mechanical pulp. | Franklin Associates | 1998 | Background Document A: A Life Cycle Inventory of Process and Transportation Energy for Eight Different Materials | |
| Office Paper | Office paper represents paper made from uncoated bleached chemical pulp. | Franklin Associates | 1998 | Background Document A, Attachment 1 : Partial LCI for Boxboard and Paper Towels | |
| Phonebooks | Phonebooks represent telephone books that are made from paper produced from mechanical pulp. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Textbooks | Textbooks represent books made from paper produced from chemical pulp. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Dimensional Lumber | Lumber includes wood used for containers, packaging, and building and includes crates, pallets, furniture and dimensional lumber like two by fours. | EPA | 2008 | MSW Facts and Figures, which is where our generation data come from. | |
| Medium-density Fiberboard | Fiberboard is a panel product that consists of wood chips pressed and bonded with a resin. Fiberboard is used primarily to make furniture. | EPA | 1995 | AP 42, Volume I, Fifth Edition (US EPA) | |
| Food Scraps | Food consists of uneaten food and wasted, prepared food from residences, commercial establishments such as grocery stores and restaurants, institutional sources such as school cafeterias, and industrial sources such as factory lunchrooms. | EPA | 2008 | MSW Facts and Figures, which is where our generation data come from. | |
| Yard Trimmings | Yard trimmings are assumed to be 30% grass, 40% leaves, and 30% tree and brush trimmings from residential, institutional, and commercial sources. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Grass | Grass consists of grass clippings from residential, institutional and commercial sources. | EPA | n.d. | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Leaves | Leaves consist of fallen leaves from deciduous trees recovered from residential, institutional and commercial sources. | EPA | n.d. | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Branches | Branches are assumed to be the woody clippings from trees and brush from residential, intuitional and commercial sources. | EPA | n.d. | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed Paper | Broad Definition | Mixed paper is assumed to be 24% newspaper, 48% corrugated cardboard, 8% magazines, and 20% office paper. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks |
| Residential Definition | Residential mixed paper is assumed to be 23% newspaper, 53% corrugated cardboard, 10% magazines, and 14% office paper. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Office Paper Definition | Office mixed paper is assumed to be 21% newspaper, 5% corrugated cardboard, 36% magazines, and 38% office paper. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed Metals | Mixed metals are made up of 38% aluminum cans and 62% steel cans. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed Plastics | Mixed plastics are made up of 45% HDPE, 33% LDPE, and 22% PET plastic. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed Recyclables | Mixed Recyclables are made up of approximately 1% aluminum cans, 3% steel cans, 6% glass, 1% HDPE, 1% LDPE, 1% PET, 46% corrugated cardboard, 7% magazines/third-class mail, 22% newspaper, 8% office papers, <1% phonebooks, 1% textbooks, and 3% dimensional lumber. See those definitions for details. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed Organics | Mixed organics are made up of 48% food scraps and 52% yard trimmings. See those definitions for details. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Mixed MSW | Mixed MSW (municipal solid waste) comprises the waste materials typically discarded by households and collected by curbside collection vehicles; it does not include white goods (e.g., refrigerators, toasters) or industrial waste. | EPA | 2006 | Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks | |
| Carpet | Carpet represents broadloom residential carpet containing a mix of nylon, PET and PP components within the face fiber, primary and secondary backing, and latex used for attaching the backings. | Plastics Europe | 2005 | Life-Cycle Inventory of Solid Strip Hardwood Flooring in the Eastern United States | |
| Realff, M. | 2011 | Personal communication between Dr. Matthew Realff, Georgia Tech. and Adam Brundage and Nikita Pavlenko, ICF International | |||
| Personal Computers | PCs are made up of a central processing unit (CPU) and a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. The components of the CPU and monitor include steel housing, internal electric components, the CRT, plastic casing, and circuit boards. In addition to these valuable components, PCs contain lead, brominated flame retardants and other potentially hazardous chemicals. | Franklin Associates | 2002 | Energy and Greenhouse Gas Factors for Personal Computers: Final Report | |
| Clay Bricks | Bricks are produced by firing materials such as clay, kaolin, fire clay, bentonite, or common clay and shale. The majority of the bricks produced in the US are clay. In WARM, clay brick source reduction is considered to be the reuse of full bricks rather than the grinding and reusing of broken or damaged brick. | EPA | 2003 | Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Clay Brick Reuse and Concrete Recycling | |
| Concrete | Concrete is a high-volume building material produced by mixing cement, water, and coarse and fine aggregates. In WARM, concrete is assumed to be recycled into aggregate, so the GHG benefits are associated with the avoided emissions associated with mining and processing aggregate. | EPA | 2003 | Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Clay Brick Reuse and Concrete Recycling | |
| Fly Ash | Fly ash is a byproduct of coal combustion that is used as a cement replacement in concrete. | EPA | 2003 | Background Document for Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Fly Ash Used as a Cement Replacement in Concrete | |
| Tires | Tires represent scrap tires that have been disposed of by consumers and have several end uses in the U.S. market including as a fuel, in civil engineering, and in various ground rubber applications such as running tracks and molded products. | Atech Group | 2001 | A National Approach to Waste Tyres | |
| EIA | 2009 | 2006 Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey, Table 3.2: Fuel Consumption, 2006 for Synthetic Rubber | |||
| Corti, A. and Lombardi, L. | 2004 | End life tyres: Alternative final disposal processes compared by LCA | |||
| Athena Institute | 2000 | Life Cycle Analysis of Residential Roofing Products | |||
| Asphalt Concrete | Asphalt concrete is composed primarily of aggregate, which consists of hard, graduated fragments of sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, rock dust, or powder. | Census Bureau | 2001 | Fuels and Electric Energy Report. U.S. Economic Census | |
| Census Bureau | 1997 | Mining-Subject Series, Product Summary, U.S. Economic Census | |||
| Athena Sustainable Materials Institute | 2001 | Life Cycle Inventory for Road and Roofing Asphalt | |||
| National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) | 2009 | U.S. Life-Cycle Inventory Database | |||
| Natural Resources Canada | 2005 | Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation c/o Natural Resources Canada | |||
| Levis, J.W. | 2008 | A Life-Cycle Analysis of Alternatives for the Management of Waste Hot-Mix Asphalt, Commercial Food Waste, and Construction and Demolition Waste | |||
| Asphalt Shingles | Asphalt shingles are typically made of a felt mat saturated with asphalt. Fiberglass shingles are composed of asphalt cement (36 percent by weight), a mineral stabilizer like limestone or dolomite (40 percent), sand-sized mineral granules (38 percent), in addition to the organic or fiberglass felt backing (15 percent). | Athena Sustainable Materials Institute | 2000 | Life Cycle Analysis of Residential Roofing Products | |
| Cochran, K. | 2006 | Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling: Methods, Markets, and Policy | |||
| Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA) | 2007 | Recycling Tear-Off Asphalt Shingles: Best Practices Guide | |||
| Drywall | Drywall, also known as wallboard, gypsum board, or plaster board, is manufactured from gypsum plaster and a paper covering. | Venta, G. | 1997 | Life Cycle Analysis of Gypsum Board and Associated Finishing Products | |
| Fiberglass Insulation | Fiberglass insulation is produced from a blend of sand, limestone, soda ash, and recycled glass cullet, which accounts for about 40 percent of the raw material inputs. | Lippiatt, B. | 2007 | Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) | |
| Enviros Consulting | 2003 | Glass Recycling — Life Cycle Carbon Dioxide Emissions | |||
| Vinyl Flooring | All vinyl flooring is comprised of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin along with additives such as plasticizers, stabilizers, pigments, and fillers. | Lippiatt, B. | 2007 | Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) | |
| European Council of Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI) | 2001 | Eco-profile of high volume commodity phthalate esters (DEHP/DINP/DIDP) | |||
| Franklin Associates | 2007 | Revised Final Report: Cradle to Gate Life Cycle Inventory of Nine Plastics Resins Polyurethane Precursors | |||
| ecoinvent Centre | 2008 | ecoinvent Database v2.1. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories | |||
| Wood Flooring | Virgin hardwood flooring is produced from lumber. Coatings and sealants can be applied to wood flooring in “pre-finishing” that occurs at the manufacturing facility, or on-site. | Bergman, R. and Bowe, S.A. | 2008 | Environmental impact of producing hardwood lumber using life-cycle inventory | |
| Hubbard, S.S. and Bowe, S.A. | 2008 | Life-Cycle Inventory of Solid Strip Hardwood Flooring in the Eastern United States | |||
| Bergman, R. | 2010 | Personal communication between Richard Bergman, USDA Forest Service and Robert Renz and Christopher Evans, ICF International | |||
