Assessing the environmental impact of ceramic tile production in Thailand

Ceramic tiles are one of the most widely used materials in both commercial and residential buildings. As environmental problems increase, the need for environment-friendly building design increases. To achieve this, architects and engineers need reliable data on the environmental impacts of various building materials-including ceramic tiles. This paper reports the results of environmental impact assessment of ceramic tile production in Thailand. Key impact categories, including fossil fuel impact, global warming, ozone depletion, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity were assessed. The results showed that when assessed by EDIP methodology, the global warming impact value of 3.73E+3 kg CO2-eq per megagram (Mg) of ceramic tile is quite prominent and is rather high compared with existing data in current literature. The human toxicity impact value is also significant. The values of the other impact categories were also determined and found to be relatively high. When assessed using the Eco-indicator 99 methodology, the results showed that the fossil fuel category was the most affected with a value of 8.62E+1 Pt per Mg of ceramic tile, followed by respiratory inorganics and climate change. Raw materials transportation stage yielded the highest environmental impact values. It is thought that the key factors responsible for the relatively high impact values are the process technologies employed and the long transportation distances of the raw materials. It was concluded that the environmental impact values of ceramic tile production in this study are different from, and in most cases higher than, the values presented in current literature. (C) 2010 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved