Opportunities for Improving the Environmental Profile of Silk Cocoon Production under Brazilian Conditions

Silvia Mara Bortoloto Damasceno Barcelos, Rodrigo Salvador, Maria da Graça Guedes and Antonio Carlos de Francisco
Additional contact information
Silvia Mara Bortoloto Damasceno Barcelos: Science and Technology Center Textile, Azurém Campus, Engineering School, University of Minho (Uminho), 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Rodrigo Salvador: Ponta Grossa Campus, Post-Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), 330 Doutor Washington Subtil Chueire St. Jardim Carvalho, Ponta Grossa, PR 84017-220, Brazil
Maria da Graça Guedes: Science and Technology Center Textile, Azurém Campus, Engineering School, University of Minho (Uminho), 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
Antonio Carlos de Francisco: Ponta Grossa Campus, Post-Graduate Program in Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Sustainable Production Systems Laboratory (LESP), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), 330 Doutor Washington Subtil Chueire St. Jardim Carvalho, Ponta Grossa, PR 84017-220, Brazil

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Brazilian silk production is amongst the five largest in the world. Nonetheless, there is no life cycle assessment study on silk cocoon production and its upstream processes, pertaining to the mulberry production (fundamental upstream process for silk production), in the existing literature. The objective of this study was to identify opportunities to improve the environmental profile of mulberry and silk cocoon production under Brazilian conditions. To that end, a life cycle assessment was conducted for the core processes of mulberry and silk cocoon production and upstream processes of raw material production, using the ReCiPe method for life cycle impact assessment using nine impact categories. Overall, the mulberry production showed greater impacts than the cocoon production for the impact categories analyzed. A few opportunities for improving the environmental profile of mulberry and silk cocoon production under Brazilian conditions included replacing the Kraft paper used to cover the rearing beds, replacing the standard tractor used to fetch mulberry leaves, replacing light bulbs, conducting a more sustainable mulberry and cocoon production, and setting a reverse logistics system for plastic and paper packaging waste. Nevertheless, many of these measures are long-term strategies. Besides, many of them need further economic feasibility assessment.

Keywords: silk cocoon; life cycle assessment; Brazilian silk; mulberry production; life cycle inventory; LCA; LCI; environmental impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3214/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3214/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3214-:d:346183

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().