The environmental impact caused by the ceramic industries and assessment methodologies

Abstract

The manufacturing processes of the ceramic tiles from the raw materials to finished product generate various environmental hazards to the earth and human being. The available literature on the environmental hazards caused by the ceramic industries and assessment methodologies are limited. In this paper, various environmental impacts, the severity of the impacts and various tools used for the assessment of the environmental impacts while manufacturing the ceramic tiles are presented. The details of the ceramic tiles manufacturing process were collected and compiled based on manufacturing process, environmental impacts and assessment methodologies. The results of the study were discussed based on the environmental impact caused by the ceramic industries and the effectiveness of various assessment methodologies. From the literature, it has been identified that manufacturing of the ceramic tiles produces its own amount of harmful and hazardous gases to the environment. It has been observed that an individual ceramic plant produces (15.89 kg CO2-eq) per square meter of the ceramic tiles, which lead to (1.14 ×10-5kg CFC 11-eq) ozone layer depletion. Besides, ultrafine and nanosized airborne particles are generated by the production units those particles affect the people. Therefore, it is identified that the ceramic industries provide significant environmental hazards. The literature presented in this paper can be considered significantly for the environmental effects and to have the current status of the environmental impact due to the ceramic industries.