Katsuya Nagata

Professor of Waseda University
(3-4-1, Ohkubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169 Japan)

Abstract

The environmental protection and the resouce conservation are now major issues all over the world. On one side, waste management, especially, material recovery from the old products is one of the key factors solving these problems. On the other side, the recycling-oriented design for new products is an important factor. In this paper, recyclability and life cycle assessment on the product design are discussed on the following items, (1) features of the various recycling systems, (2) essential points of recycling-oriented design, (3) concept and examples of the life cycle assessment, (4) remaining issues on the environment-friendly design and production measures.

Key words: product design, recycling, recyclability, life cycle assessment, material recovery