ABSTRACT
In considering life cycles, it is important to note that commerce can be divided into the two broad categories of products and services. The product and materials in it should be subjected to an entire life-cycle assessment or analysis. Product budgets are based upon whole products rather than individual materials in the overall process in which products are manufactured. In industrial ecology, most treatments of life-cycle analysis make the distinction between consumable products. The environmental implications of the use of consumables are many and profound. Gasoline is clearly a consumable product, whereas the automobile in which it is burned is a service product. The motor oil used in an automobile is such a substance in that most of the original material remains after use. A distinction made in recycling is whether a recycled material is used to make the same thing repeatedly, closed loop recycling. The ultimate fates of facilities have important environmental implications.
