Life cycle sustainability assessment of automobile mats

This study aims to analyze the environmental impacts of rubber car mat in the life cycle dimension. Sensitivity analysis was performed on alternative raw materials and energy sources used in production for rubber mats and different transportation distance measurement data. In addition, in this study, the environmental sustainability of rubber car mats and carpet car mats were compared. ISO 14040 and 14044 series standards have been established for life cycle analysis. The system boundaries of our study are determined as obtaining the raw material and its transportation and production process. For this study, "1 set of automobile mat" is used as a functional unit. GaBi v9.5 was used for modeling and environmental impacts have been quantified using the CML 2001 impact assessment method. The results suggest that most of the impacts are mainly caused by the car mat production stage; the only exception to the trend is the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer depletion potential. It has been concluded that the use of carpet mats instead of rubber mats in cars has caused an increase in environmental impacts in all categories.