Design Life-Cycle

Suzie Flores

DES 40A

Professor Cogdell

11/29/21

Bottled Fragrance Energy Consumption: Transport, Use, Reuse 

INTRODUCTION

Fragrance and perfume is commonly used within a wide range of cosmetics products. Perfume and cologne are a form of fragrance and they have become a huge market that brings in a great amount of revenue to many countries around the world (Arno & Seidensticker 2020). Many different components go into the producing a perfume or cologne product that consumers can pick up off of a supermarket shelf. First, various materials that are used to extract scents are acquired from the earth (such as plants) . Then the various raw materials are taken to a facility where workers can extract oils from them (Grupo Centroflora 2017). Then the fragrances are combined with many other ingredients to create the liquid substance that we know to be perfume or cologne. These liquids are then placed in specialized containers that allow the substance to be sprayed rather than merely be contained. Then it is shipped off from the facility as a finished perfume or cologne product to various stores around the world where they can be purchased and used by consumers. Eventually, these products run out, and consumers find different ways to dispose of the container shell left behind. From the beginning of acquiring the necessary materials to create the product to disposing of materials is something that is referred to as a product life cycle. A lot of work goes into the creation and distribution of perfume and cologne products which encapsulates a high rate of energy usage from the acquisition of materials, to the assembly and transport. One of the biggest reasons why the rate of energy usage is high within perfume and cologne products is because of the shipping restrictions placed upon them. Even though these products are widely sought after, various measures must be taken to ensure the safety of the transport and distribution of these products, however in some ways the restrictions are beneficial to the environment.

PURPOSE 

Understanding a products’ life cycle is important because it helps consumers gain a better understanding of the environmental impact that certain products have. Rather than being quick to blame large corporations for their contributions toward environmental harm, consumers who are educated on how much energy goes into making certain products can make better informed decisions when choosing them. There is not a lot of research available on the entirety of several product’s life cycles but there is a good amount of information that can be compiled and summarized, which is what all of the information in this paper is based off of. This paper aims to be a tool that can be used by consumers around the world to better understand the environmental impact that perfumes and colognes have in terms of their energy consumption. 

RAW MATERIAL/ MANUFACTURING ENERGY

Harvesting raw materials that are used in the creations of a final fragrance products requires a lot of energy use especially so in harvesting sand for glass making and also in harvesting substances from which essences oils are derived from (Surburg & Panten 2016).  This includes natural plants and fruits. Harvesting plant matter often requires some form of mechanical energy or chemical if the items being harvested are collected by hand. The process of creating fragrances themselves requires the extraction of oils from natural substances. In order to create these oils the natural matter must go through a process of steam distillation, then solvent extraction, enfleurage, maceration, and expression (Grupo Centroflora 2017). Once this process is complete then an oil that can be used in the creation of the final fragrance product can be mixed with ethanol and other substances to make a finished product. As for glass, “The bulk of energy consumed in the glass manufacturing industry comes from natural gas combustion used to heat furnaces to melt raw materials to form glass. These furnaces are mainly natural gas-fired, but there are a small number of electrically-powered furnaces” (EIA 2013). The industrial sector has previously been the leading energy consumer in the world to which agriculture pertains to (EIA 2013).

TRANSPORTATION/DISTRIBUTION  ENERGY 

Although it is often overlooked, transportation of goods, materials and supplies, contributes toward the consumption of high amounts of energy. Driving or shipping items from place to place uses up a great amount of fossil fuels over time since the vehicles used to transport these goods require a source of fuel. As mentioned previously, it is more than just the products being transported off the shelves and into the hands of the consumer, it is also about the sum of the transportation of all of the pieces required to make a final finished product. Products almost always come onto the market with some kind of packaging containing them. Not only does the product itself have to be made in a factory, but also the packaging that holds it. Oftentimes, these products are made in a facility that is separate from the facility that makes the packaging. Shipping the containers from one place to another requires energy. Then once the product is fully assembled (liquid fragrance inside the container) it can be shipped out to various parts of the world. 

Transporting perfume and cologne especially consumes a high amount of energy. There are many regulations set in place for transporting perfume and cologne due to the concentrated amount of ethanol held within each product. This is an issue that will be touched upon next, but before we discuss the substance held within the bottles, it is important to address the high amount of materials called for in order to protect the exterior of the bottled fragrances. The bottles that contain the liquid fragrance are made out of glass which also makes the product difficult to ship. Glass is very fragile and requires a lot of extra padding to ensure it’s structural integrity remains intact. Because of this, more precautions need to be taken in order to ship perfume and cologne. This requires a greater amount of materials to be used in the transportation and distribution process to keep the bottles from potentially breaking as they are being shipped. These products are wrapped in protective shipping material such as bubble wrap to keep the bottles intact (Administrator 2021). Many shipping materials are made from non-recyclable materials which also contributes to the environmental impact of the products overall. The shipping materials must also be made elsewhere and then transported over to the location where the products are prepped for shipping. Although transportation of goods may be overlooked, it is important to understand just how many moving pieces go into the creation of one singular product in order to gain a better understanding of the bigger picture. 

Aside from the protective measures used to prevent the glass bottles themselves from breaking, the ethanol within the fragrances themselves poses a unique issue that contributes to the environmental impact of perfume and cologne when it comes to shipping. Ethanol is a substance that is considered hazardous. It is considered hazardous because of its combustible nature. For this reason, ethanol is prohibited in air travel shipping. This means that perfumes and colognes must be shipped using ground transport and sea transport. Although ground transport also uses fossil fuels to be powered, the environmental impact of one vehicle does not compare to the environmental impact of one cargo ship. Cargo ships produce emissions that are more harmful to the environment due to the high amount of sulfur and particulate matter that the fuels used to power the ships produce (Planete Energies 2019). Due to the quick advancement in jet fuel technology, a lot of the emissions from jet fuel are less of a hazardous concern than that of a cargo ship. Planes also typically have a more direct flight plan to a destination and can get to areas quicker than large ships can. Ships sometimes need to take a detour to get to a certain destination if they are impeded by a large land mass. Although air shipping may seem like a better choice, it also comes at a cost, “The International Council on Clean Transportation says if the aviation industry were a country, it would be the sixth top greenhouse gas emitter.” One of the benefits of shipping using cargo ships is that a singular cargo ship can transport more goods in one trip than a plane can (Popek 2016). This reduces the amount of trips that would be needed in order to ship the same amount on an airplane. Less trips would then mean less fuel used, and less fuel used would mean less energy used.

 It is in this way that shipping through cargo ships is beneficial. However, cargo ships still depend on crude oil. This is a natural resource that cannot be as easily replenished after it is all used up. “The continuous increase in the number of vessels and their exploitation result in reduced natural resources, in particular crude oil. Pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels contributes to the destruction of the ecosystem and threatens human health” (Popek 2016). There are costs and benefits in the act of transporting goods through air and through the sea and it is up to each consumer to weigh those pros and cons. 

PRODUCT USE ENERGY

Perfumes and colognes don’t use a lot of energy when it comes to the actual use of it in the hands of the consumer. The only form of energy being used is mechanical energy each time that the product holder dispenses fragrance in the form of mist by holding down the button that sprays it. There is also no recurring maintenance that goes into owning a bottle of perfume or cologne. Something like a pair of nice shoes would use more mechanical energy if they had to be polished and cleaned every few weeks, but perfume and cologne doesn’t require any upkeep once the consumer has purchased it. 

PRODUCT WASTE ENERGY 

After all of the liquid product has been used up, the consumer chooses how to dispose of the material used to contain the product. Since most bottles are made out of glass, they are often sent to recycling centers where the glass can be melted down through a firing process and reused for the creation of a new product. In other cases the glass bottles can be rinsed and reused as vases for flowers or function as pencil holders depending on the size and shape. Most of the components that make up a perfume or cologne bottle are not biodegradable so when they end up in landfills they often do not decompose as quickly as other materials do (Ceramics 2020). Glass can take millions of years to fully decompose.

CONCLUSION

All in all, making and distributing perfume around the world uses up a lot of energy. Although a lot of energy usage comes from making the materials themselves, a lot of energy also comes from transporting the goods. This is because of the use of fossil fuels used to power the vehicles that transport the goods as well  as the extra steps that have to be taken in order to prevent the bottles of fragrance from shattering on their trip. 

Works Cited

Administrator. “Shipping Perfume: Mailing & International Rules.” ShipCalm, 14 June 2021, https://www.shipcalm.com/blog/shipping-perfume-cologne/. 

Behr Arno, and Thomas Seidensticker. “Enchanting Chemistry - Natural Flavors and Fragrances.” Chemistry of Renewables, 2020, pp. 309–321., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-61430-3_18. 

“Grupo Centroflora " Research and Development.” Grupo Centroflora RSS, 2017, https://www.centroflora.com.br/en/research-and-development/. 

“How Many Years Does It Take for Glass to Decompose?” Ceramics, 19 Feb. 2020, https://expandusceramicsquestions.com/qa/how-many-years-does-it-take-for-glass-to-decompose.html. 

“Perfumes.” OEC, https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/perfumes. 

Popek, Marzenna. Response of International Shipping to the Current Environmental Challenges. Vol. 10. Les Ulis: EDP Sciences, 2016. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20161000075. https://www.proquest.com/conference-papers-proceedings/response-international-shipping-current/docview/2058973331/se-2.

“Shipping Perfume: Mailing & International Rules.” ShipCalm, 14 June 2021, https://www.shipcalm.com/blog/shipping-perfume-cologne/. 

Surburg, Horst, and Johannes Panten. Common Fragrance and Flavor Materials: Preparation, Properties and Uses. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH, 2016. 

“The Basics of Perfume Transportation.” USA Truckload Shipping, 28 Oct. 2020, https://usatruckloadshipping.com/the-basics-of-perfume-transportation/. 

“Transportation of Beauty, Fragrance and Perfume Product Shippers.” AsstrA, https://asstra.com/industries/fashion-and-beauty/. 

“U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis.” Glass Manufacturing Is an Energy-Intensive Industry Mainly Fueled by Natural Gas , 21 Aug. 2013, https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=12631. 

Workman, D. (2020). Perfumes Exporters by Countr. World's Top Exports. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.worldstopexports.com/perfumes-exports-country/. 

Makana Simafranca

Professor Cogdell 

SAS 043

02 December 2021

Waste and Emissions of Perfume

The chemical industry covers a wide range of markets, most of which are relatively unknown to the average consumer. However, one extremely popular industry that has reached the public eye is the cosmetics industry. This industry, much like most other fashion industries, is heavily influenced by trends and marketing tactics. Most of these trends include changes in physical appearance but one aspect of the cosmetics industry is sorely left out of this pattern. Fragrances do not account for a majority of the cosmetics industry, however perfumes and colognes have witnessed steady growth over time with the perfume market predicted to grow by 6.2% this upcoming year (Reportlinker). With this growth comes an increase in production of perfumes, but also an increase in waste and emissions of the product. The all-encompassing cosmetics industry focuses mainly on adapting the appearance of its consumers, but smell is largely overlooked to be a key component of the industry as well. Due to their invisible nature, perfumes and colognes are incredibly popular but little is known about how these products are made or even the effects that the chemicals may have upon its users and the environment. It has been discovered that the process of gathering, manufacturing, using, and disposing of various aspects of perfume utilizes several different processes that result in negative emissions and waste.

Emissions and Waste in the Gathering of Materials 

Synthetic smells have been popular since the mid 1800s once chemists were able to isolate certain compounds in organic raw materials (Behr, Armo). Since then the process of making synthetic fragrances has become more complex and diverse in regards to the number of things that we can make. Because of this, the ingredients within perfume are extremely varied depending on what fragrance it is intended to mimic. Organic ingredients can range from fruits, spices, and animal products. These items, in combination with things such as coal, petroleum, or water make up the vast majority of synthetically produced scents (Ikenberry, Esther). Accounting for this wide range of ingredients, finding specific numbers for the emissions or waste of these specific materials is incredibly difficult. Having said that, there are still ingredients that most perfumes share, those being ethanol and glass. The glass is made by heating a mixture of silica, soda ash, limestone, and recycled glass called cullet. In heating, CO2 is released into the air, the amount of which is determined by the type of fuel being used. Very little emissions come from the molten mixture itself. Little to no waste is created in this process, and excess glass can be easily recycled. Ethanol is made in separate factories by fermenting biomass. Corn and sugarcane are the most common sources of biomass used in ethanol production, however sugarcane is nearly twice as energy efficient to produce (Goldemberg, Jose, et al.). The growth of corn or sugarcane as well as the production of ethanol itself is estimated to emit around 1167g of CO2 per gallon of ethanol produced (Zhuang, Qianlai, et al.). This number may be large but the net emission is much lower because a large portion of this CO2 is reabsorbed by the corn or sugarcane used to make more ethanol. Because of this fact, most people consider ethanol to be carbon neutral (U.S. Energy Information Administration). If there are CO2 emissions to be made in terms of ethanol in perfume, current trends would begin to decrease them. People are beginning to push for more “pure perfumes” that contain less alcohol and more fragrance substance. The ratios of fragrance to alcohol are estimated to be around fifteen percent fragrance to 85 percent ethanol, trends are pushing this ratio to be around forty percent fragrance to sixty percent ethanol. The impacts of this push are unclear, given the relative carbon neutrality of ethanol and the many processes that are used to make fragrance it may actually serve to damage the environment quicker than before. As for direct waste of the production of ethanol, there is very little to say about it. While some companies choose to dump the remaining biomass, other companies choose to burn it for fuel in the production of more ethanol. Either way, CO2 is emitted, but more energy is conserved by using the leftover biomass as fuel.(U.S. Energy Information Administration).

Emissions and Waste in Manufacturing of Perfume

Fragrance for perfume can be made in several different ways, each emit their own fair share of CO2 and other gases. Steam distillation is one of these methods and is extremely energy and power intensive. As will be a common theme amongst the rest of the methods for making fragrance, steam distillation utilizes heat, either through electricity or fire over long periods of time. This consumes a large amount of energy and results in a similarly proportional amount of CO2 being produced (Gadalla, Mamdouh A. et al.). This process of extraction is incredibly popular and is used in many different syntheses and products. Optimizations have been made but little can be done to limit the amount of CO2 emitted during the process (Gadalla, Mamdouh A. et al.). Solvent extraction is another way of extraction that emits CO2 through its use of a boiler and heat. This method functions similarly to steam distillation but at a different temperature, thus its emissions are relatively equal to steam distillation (Baskar, G. et al.). Enfleurage is the final method of fragrance extraction. This is the oldest method of extraction and includes spreading fat over organic material to draw out oils. Over time the oils are drawn out and absorbed within the fat which is then mixed with alcohol to separate from the oils. While there are no emissions or waste for this process, the absorption process can take multiple days for an incredibly small yield (Stratakos, Alexandros Ch, and Anastasios Koidis). This downside causes enfleurage to be practically useless in today’s economy, but it is important to know that there are environmentally safe methods of oil extraction that can be used. Once the fragrance, ethanol, and glass bottle are transported to the same factory they are combined and stored for the aging process. Very little is publicly known about the specific aspects of combining the ingredients within large-scale perfume manufacturing, however it can be assumed that the process is relatively clean in regards to emissions. It is also safe to assume that limited heat is used within the entire process due to the flammable nature of ethanol.

Emissions and Waste in the Use of Perfume

Perfumes are rather straightforward in this topic because the entire purpose of perfume bottles is to release the liquid held directly into the outside environment. Even though this can be easily inferred, it is still incredibly difficult to find specific numbers about the result of using perfume bottles. However, by looking at the bigger picture, around 265 tons of volatile organic compounds were released from consumer products each day in California alone (Bridges, Betty). Because anything that emits an odor contains volatile organic compounds, the 265 tons of emission does not only include perfumes. It also includes cleaning products such as soaps or shampoos or quality of life products like air freshener. 

Emissions and Waste in Disposal and Waste Management of Perfume

Most of the time perfume bottles are tossed into the trash just like regular garbage. What makes this extremely dangerous is that chemicals held within the bottle get treated like any other trash and are either burned or dumped. In some cases the perfume liquid is dumped directly into the ocean. With the growth of the cosmetics industry this process has gone largely unnoticed as more pollutants are frequently released into the ocean due to lack of regulation (Bridges, Betty). What makes this even more harmful to the aquatic environment specifically is that ethanol is extremely miscible, meaning that it mixes with water and cannot be easily extracted from it (Daniel, D). Because perfumes contain mostly ethanol, this makes it one of the more dangerous things to pour into the ocean. What is poured in the ocean stays in the ocean when it comes to perfumes. The glass bottles can be recycled and are usually returned to the glass cutlet stage that was mentioned previously, thus there is limited waste on that end at the very least.

Conclusion

The invisibility of perfumes causes very few people to think about the impacts it may have upon its users or the environment. While perfumes might be considered on the lighter side of the emission and waste spectrum, it may be one of the more dangerous products. The chemicals present within perfume are scientifically manufactured to persist through the elements of the outside environment. Therefore, while there are relatively little emissions compared to other products, the chemical waste that gets dumped into the ocean is extremely damaging to the environment.

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