Life Cycle Inventory of the Automotive Paint Processes

By Lindita Prendi, Edwin K.L. Tam, Angelos Anastassopoulos

The automotive manufacturing industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in North America. Millions of cars, of sizes ranging from small economy cars to large commercial vehicles, are manufactured every year. These millions of cars supply not only the demand in North American markets, but also worldwide.

In North America, the automotive industry is cur­rently attempting to quantify and inventory the envi­ronmental impacts incurred during the automobile manufacturing processes.

This data is being used to populate a public database of environmental impacts intended to enable both the private and public sector in North America to use life cycle assessment (LCA) tech­niques for environmentally oriented decision-making.