Group Coursework and Project Cover Sheet

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Cluster Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure 2020-2021

Module Sustainable Development___________________________

Assignment Coursework. Expectation for condom project

Assignment Setter_____Myers, Rupert J_____________________

Deadline ______09:00 on Friday of week 11, 18 December 2020

DECLARATION
I certify that I have read the definition of plagiarism given overleaf, and that the work
submitted for this coursework assignment is my own work, except where specifically
indicated otherwise. In signing this document I agree that this work may be submitted
to an electronic plagiarism test at any time and I will provide a further version of this
work in an appropriate format when requested:

Name: ______Jinhao Gao____________ CID: 01935053___ Date:17/12/2020

Name: ______Xuanzuo Dong_______ CID: 01894442____ Date:17/12/2020

Name: ______Mubin Al-Manaf_____ CID: 01976597____ Date:17/12/2020

Name: _______________________________ CID: ________________ Date:_________________

Name: _______________________________ CID: ________________ Date:_________________

Note: Until an assignment carries this completed front page it will not be accepted for marking.

TO BE COMPLETED BY THE MARKER

Grade awarded: ___________________________________________

Late penalty applied: _____________________________________

Late submission penalties are 50% for the 24 hours and 100% thereafter.

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 PLAGIARISM

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 Research on Sustainable Development Incentives for Government Subsidies for Condom
Industry in Malaysia –
An Investigation Based on LCA for Rubber Condom Production

0. Executive Summary

The demand for rubber gloves has been steadily increasing due to the pandemic. The Ministry of
Environment and Water (the client) wishes to assess the production system of condoms, to better
allocate limited resources such as capital, land and water. Currently, the disposable rubber glove
industry is booming and the government is considering whether to provide subsidies to rubber
condom manufacturers as they are being threatened by the growing rubber glove manufacturers.

The outcome of this LCA study suggests that condom production is a more attractive production
system in comparison to rubber glove production. Rubber glove production is currently generating
more revenue in comparison to condom production. Subsequently, the disposable rubber glove
production industry consumes a larger fraction of natural rubber produced in Malaysia. However,
available land suitable for rubber tree plantation is very limited in Malaysia. Therefore, condom
production is more sustainable because it uses less land whilst providing the same economic value
to the nation.

We recommend that the government should take further steps in subsidising rubber condom
production as it is a more sustainable process in comparison to rubber glove production in terms of
land usage and revenue generation per kg of CO 2 emissions.

1. Introduction
The Ministry of Environment and Water (Malaysia) is our client. Historically, Malaysia has reaped
great economic rewards from its rubber production - accounting for 25% of the world’s natural
rubber output in 1990 and was once the world’s largest natural rubber producer [ CITATION
Econd \l 2057 ]. This study will investigate an important product of the rubber and latex production
industry - condoms. Malaysian-owned condom producer, Karex, is the world’s leading exporter of
condoms. Interestingly, condom production is the seventh largest export of the rubber industry as of
2019 by value of exports, whilst disposable rubber gloves are the top export. [ CITATION Mal20 \l
2057 ] As the global pandemic ensues, the demand for rubber gloves has been steadily increasing.
As such, the client has acquired consultants to help assess the production system of condoms, to be
better informed in making decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources such as land, water
and capital. Currently, the rubber glove industry is booming and it may be in the best interest of the
government to provide subsidies to rubber condom manufacturers that are being threatened by the
growing rubber glove manufacturers. The Life Cycle Assessment will form the environmental basis of
this study, as the ministry desires quantitative data on externalities associated with condom
production which are often overlooked in economic decisions.

2. Methodology
2.1 Block Flow Diagram

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Figure 1 - Block Flow Diagram of Condom Production

2.2 Goal and Scope

The goal of this exercise is to identify the environmental impacts associated with the production of
condoms. These impacts are quantified for the product system of condoms, and are compared to
the alternative product system of rubber gloves. Condoms and rubber gloves share similar processes
upstream, as they both are derived from latex production. This implies that the environmental
hotspots will potentially differ due to the independent production processes of the two individual
products.

2.3 System Boundary, Functional Unit and Reference Flow

The main life cycle stages include extraction and processing, and production. This means that our
LCA scope spans from cradle-to-gate. The extraction and processing stage is associated with the
natural rubber plantation, where the raw material, latex, is harvested from the rubber tree. Fertilizer
production is considered as it is required for the natural rubber plantation. The main production
stages include latex processing, followed by condom production. Inflows into the system boundary
include elementary flows and flows which are products associated with unit processes upstream.
The second group of flows help to simplify the hand-calculations as each flow can be directly linked
to the three environmental impact indicators as they form part of the environmental intervention
matrix required to calculate these burdens. The reference time and space is the year 2019 and
Malaysia respectively. The reference product is one kg of rubber condoms 1, and is related to the
functional unit defined as the production of one kg of rubber condoms using natural rubber derived
from rubber tree plantations in Malaysia.

2.4 Life Cycle Inventory

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The life cycle inventory analysis was performed using MS Excel. Inputs and outputs of the product
system was derived from multiple sources for each of the unit processes. The five unit processes
considered are shown in Figure 1. The inventory data for natural rubber tree plantation was
provided by the Malaysian Rubber Board [ CITATION MRB09 \l 2057 ] . Similarly, data for latex
processing and condom production was provided by EHWM 2 (Warit Jawjit et al., n.d.) and an article
written by Maik Birnbach et al. (2020). It is prudent to appreciate that the unit processes included
within the boundary are known to be located in Malaysia, such as fertilizer production and LPG
production. Despite being locally produced, the unit processes of electricity production and mains
water production have not been included as the process inputs are not known. Electricity from the
grid and water from the mains may be derived from various sources such as coal burning or
hydropower dams and hence, electricity and water are treated as elementary flows into the system.
Revenue allocation was used as oppose to mass allocation as this study focuses on the economic
utility of rubber condom production in comparison to rubber glove production. The data used for the
allocation of six process outputs is based on GBP per kg of product and are shown in Table 4 and
Table 5 in the Appendix.
Table 1 - Inventory Vector (g)

1
Packaging not included in weight of rubber condoms
2
EHWM refers to Centre of Excellence for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management, Thailand

2.5 Life Cycle Impact Analysis

The LCI analysis was performed using data from the OpenLCA-LCIA-2.0.5 database. Three areas of
protection (AoPs) were considered – human health (and wellbeing), natural resources and
ecosystem productivity. These AoPs are associated with three different impact categories which are

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global warming, resource depletion and acidification. Using the Inventory Vector (g) shown in Figure
Y to represent the 22 elementary flows, the environmental impact represented by the
aforementioned category indicators are estimated using a combination of characterisation factors
and weighting factors. These estimates of burden are quantified as an equivalent mass of carbon
dioxide emissions of unit kg CO 2-eq, and are subsequently converted into monetary units of
USD2012 as shown in Table 2.
Table 2 - Weighted and Grouped Impact Category Indicators

The final value of CO2-equivalent emissions for 1kg of condoms (with packaging) is 23.4 kg CO 2-eq.
This value will be compared with the CO 2-equivalent emissions of rubber glove production in the
further sections. However, it is important to note that actual CO 2 emissions do not impact the
country locally in the short-term and as such, they may not be a major consideration in the decision
process and hence, more practical relationships involving monetary units and environmental impacts
are used in the comparison section to make it more convenient to understand by ministers and
government officials. It may be of interest that resource depletion is the most affected impact
category. As mineral resource reserves are very valuable for the economy and the environmental
impacts that accompany it are relatively local, it should be prioritised to ensure that future
development of the production process of rubber condoms is sustainable.

2.6 Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis

The uncertainty analyses was performed by altering the values of the inputs of three unit processes
– latex production, natural rubber plantation and condom production. Two of the input values for
the first unit process, water use and electricity use, was modelled using the rand() function on MS
Excel which generates pseudo-random numbers from a uniform distribution. For example, if an
academic paper provides values in a range, the input values from this range will be derived from a
uniformly distributed model. The same technique was used to derive the input values for the
remaining two unit processes. The results suggest that the variations in the inventory vector for each
of the 20 scenarios are negligible (as seen in Figure 2 in Appendices). This was expected as the
provided range of possible input values were relatively small. This could be due to the culmination of
production experience over many years, meaning that the yield from latex production and rubber
tree plantation is well understood and replicable. Greater uncertainty and sensitivity may stem from
variations in latex yield due to environmental factors. Environmental factors such as unpredictable
rainfall throughout the year directly impact yield and growth of rubber trees, further enforcing the
need to use existing rubber tree plantations in the most sustainable way as land is scarce. Increase in
land usage is accompanied heavily with environmental burdens associated with deforestation and
anthropogenic changes in land-use.

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 3. Comparison between Rubber Condom Production and Rubber Glove Production

The environmental impacts from rubber condom production and rubber glove production are similar
as they share two major unit processes. The CO 2-eq emissions (cradle-to-gate) are relatively similar
and differ only by 4kg CO 2-eq. For a pragmatic view, it is important to understand the economic
factors that will influence this comparison, by considering the revenue of both products.
Table 3 - Comparison of relationships between environmental impacts and revenue for both
products. [ CITATION Mai20 \l 1033 ], [ CITATION Usu18 \l 1033 ],

As shown in Table 2, the land use in terms of hectares of rubber tree plantation is significantly
greater for the production of natural rubber gloves in comparison to natural rubber condoms. This
means that in terms of land-usage, roughly 2.5 times more land is required for the production of 1kg
natural rubber gloves in comparison to 1kg natural rubber condoms (see in Figure 3 in Appendices).
This is closely related to land use (ha) per GBP of revenue. It can be deduced from Table 2 that
natural rubber condoms require less land to generate the same revenue as natural rubber gloves.
For the same amount of revenue, natural rubber gloves produce roughly double the amount of CO 2-
eq in comparison to natural rubber condoms.

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The results of this LCA study suggest that condom production is a more attractive production system
in comparison to rubber glove production, when considering environmental impacts in addition to
economic factors. Under current circumstances, the glove production industry is generating more
revenue in comparison to the condom production industry. As such, the glove production industry
consumes a larger fraction of natural rubber produced in Malaysia. However, given the fact that land
suitable for rubber tree plantation is very limited in Malaysia, condom production is more
sustainable because it uses less land whilst providing the same economic value. We recommend that
the government should take further steps in subsidising rubber condom production as it is a more
sustainable process in comparison to rubber glove production in terms of land usage and revenue
generation per kg of CO2 emissions.

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References

Maik Birnbach, A. L. (2020). A condom's footprint - life cycle assessment of a natural rubber condom.
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
Malaya, E. H. (n.d.). Early 20th Century Rubber Development. Retrieved from Economic History
Malaya: https://www.ehm.my/publications/articles/about-rubber
Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council. (2020). Malaysia's Exports of Rubber Products.
Retrieved from Malaysian Rubber Council:
http://www.myrubbercouncil.com/industry/malaysia_export.php
MRB . (2009). Rubber plantation and processing technologies. Kuala Lumpur.
Usubharatana, P. a. (2018). CARBON FOOTPRINTS OF RUBBER PRODUCTS SUPPLY CHAINS (FRESH
LATEX TO RUBBER GLOVE). APPLIED ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, 16(2),
1639-1657.
Warit Jawjit, P. P. (n.d.). Evaluating Environmental Performance of Concentrated Latex Production in
Thailand.
Warit Jawjit, Carolien Kroeze, Suwat Rattanapan,Greenhouse gas emissions from rubber
industry in Thailand,Journal of Cleaner Production,Volume 18, Issue 5,2010,Pages 403-411,ISSN
0959-6526,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.12.003.
K. Hasler, S. Bröring, S.W.F. Omta, H.-W. Olfs. (2015). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of different
fertilizer product types. European Journal of Agronomy,Volume 69, 41-51. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2015.06.001.
David A. Turner, Ian D. Williams, Simon Kemp. (2015). Greenhouse gas emission factors for
recycling of source-segregated waste materials,Resources, Conservation and Recycling,Volume 105,
186-197. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.10.026.
Boureima, F.-S.; Messagie, M.; Matheys, J.; Wynen, V.; Sergeant, N.; Van Mierlo, J.; De Vos,
M.; De Caevel, B. (2009) Comparative LCA of electric, hybrid, LPG and gasoline cars in Belgian
context. World Electr. Veh. J. 2009, 3, 469-476
S. Petsri, A. Chidthaisong, N. Pumijumnong, C. Wachrinrat,Greenhouse gas emissions and
carbon stock changes in rubber tree plantations in Thailand from 1990 to 2004,Journal of Cleaner
Production,Volume 52,
2013,Pages 61-70,ISSN 0959-6526,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.02.003.
iqing Fan, David R. Shonnard, Tom N. Kalnes, Peter B. Johnsen, Serin Rao,A life cycle
assessment of pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) -derived jet fuel and diesel,Biomass and
Bioenergy,Volume 55,2013,Pages 87-100,ISSN 0961-
9534,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2012.12.040.
Birnbach, M., Lehmann, A., Naranjo, E. et al. A condom’s footprint - life cycle assessment of
a natural rubber condom. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25, 964–979 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01701-y

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Appendices

Table 3. Unallocated Data for Unit Processes

Table 4. Allocation for Natural Rubber Plantation, based on Revenue

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 Table 5. Allocation for Processing, based on Revenue

Table 6. Allocated Matrix P

Table 7. Allocated A inverse

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 Table 8. Final Demand Vector f

Table 9. Scaling Vector s

Table 10. Inventory Vector g

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 Table 11. Scaled and Allocated Matrix P

Table 12. Characterisation Factor, Weighting Factor and Environmental Impact

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 Table 13. CO2 eq Emission per Kilogram Condoms Produced

Table 14. Uncertain Data

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 Table 15. Uncertainty Analysis

Figure 2. Final Result for Uncertainty Analysis (Negligible in Comparison)

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Figure 3. Comparison between Glove and Condom Production over Land Resource Consumption &
Environmental Impact

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