A comparative life cycle assessment of utility poles manufactured with different materials and dimensions

Abstract

In the production of utility poles, used for transmission, telephony, telecommunications or lighting support, for many years, the steel has almost entirely replaced wood. In recent years, however, new composite materials are a great alternative to steel. The questions are: is the production of composite better in terms of environmental impact? Is the lifecycle of composite pole more eco-sustainable than lifecycle of steel pole? Where is the peak of pollution inside the lifecycle of both of technologies? In the last years, in order to deal with new European polices in environmental field, a new approach for the impact assessment has been developed: the Life Cycle Assessment. It involves a cradle-to-grave consideration of all stages of a product system. Stages include the extraction of raw material, the provision of energy for transportation and process, material processing and fabrication, product manufacture and distribution, use, recycling and disposal of the wastes and the product itself. A great potentiality of the Life Cycle assessment approach is to compare two different technologies designed for the same purpose, with the same functional unit, for understanding which of these two is better in terms of environmental impact. In this study, the goal is to evaluate the difference in environmental terms between two different technologies used for the production of poles for illumination support.