Evaluation of the environmental impacts of rice paddy production using life cycle assessment: case study in Bangladesh

The world is heading towards sustainability. Environmental dimension of sustainability is getting momentum and therefore it is imperative to know the peril through environmental load of a product, process, or activity throughout its life cycle. This study focuses on life cycle assessment (LCA) of rice production in Bangladesh, the fourth highest producer of rice in the world. The objective of this study was to estimate the different environmental impacts from production of paddy rice, in a typical scenario, and identify the environmental hotspots. A life cycle impact assessment has been carried out using ReCiPe methodology, which consists of 18 midpoint impact indicators. The resulting LCA has pointed out the magnitude of impact per kg of paddy produced from the harvested field; a CO2eq emission of 3.15 kg as global warming potential, a Peq emission of 0.00122 kg as freshwater eutrophication, fossil depletion of 0.68 kg oileq, a 1,4-DCB-kg oileq emission of 1.15 kg as human toxicity, a NMVOC emission of 0.016 kg as particulate matter formation, a Neq emission of 0.0154 kg as marine eutrophication and use of 2.97 m3 of water for irrigation purpose. Contribution analysis shows that irrigation and emissions from paddy field are the most environmentally burdening stages across all major impact categories. Manufacture of fertilizer and pesticide also play a significant role in putting environmental load. The application of this study helped to identify improvement opportunities to reduce environmental impacts within this and related production systems, and demonstrated its usefulness in setting priorities to realize these opportunities. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.