Page 107 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Burcu Hiçyılmaz - Sedat Alataş - Etem Karakaya

2014: 10). Just like a live organism, products have a life cycle as well, and
the lifespan of a product is usually analyzed by dividing it into stages. The
product life cycle of a material involves all the stages from the extraction of
the material from nature to its final form as a waste. The number of stages
may vary from minimum four to maximum nine stages according to different
approaches (Qureshi et al, 2014: 226). IRP (2020a: 26) suggests that it is
possible to mention six main stages: Extracting the main material from nature,
processing, fabrication, manufacture, use, and end-of-life. As seen in Figure 6,
a product life cycle starts with the extraction of the raw material from nature.
The second stage comprises processing the raw material and making it ready
to be used in semi-finished product. The material obtained from this stage is
used at the third stage, in the production of the semi-finished product, which
is to be used in the production of the final product, though not in itself a final
product. At the forth stage, these bulk products are used in the manufacture
of the final product to be used for final consumption or investment. In the sixth
and final stage, the product life comes to an end and waste is generated.In
addition to these, scrap emerges in the second, third, fourth and sixth stages.

Fabrication

Processing Manufacturing

Scrap
Junk
Extaction
from nature Use

Primary
material End-of-Life Final
input disposal

Figure 6: The Stages of a Product Life
Source: Prepared by the writers based on IRP (2020a:26)
Another definition of stages was provided by IEA (2019). IEA (2019: 8) made
a more intensive definition, dividing similar stages into four stages based on
value chain: Design stage, production stage, use stage, and the end-of-life .

93 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate