Track: Sustainable Manufacturing

Abstract

Rice is the staple food in Sri Lanka. The impact of the rice mills to the environment is considerable issue currently. The rice production process consumes energy, water, bio mass and other environmental resources and adds air and solid emissions, effluent and wastages back to environment which cause environmental impacts. It is very clear to understand that the large amount of energy consumption, waste water and solid waste to the environment and the very large capacity machines and engines used by the mills are the causes behind the issue. Therefore, the total environmental effect of each and every step in the life cycle of the production process needs to be considered in order to identify the most environmental friendly rice production method. Mainly the polishing and parboiling processes are associated with harmful environment discharge such as emission to air, fossil fuel and affect the natural resources. Therefore, proper environmental management practices need to be sustained in the rice production industry. The objective of the research is to evaluate the environmental impact through the life cycle of rice production in Sri Lanka. Based on LCA approach (ISO 14040 series), the environmental impacts by the rice industry was analyzed. The impacts on environment was assessed through “SimaPro” software. The results interpreted that the most harmful processes among the rice production are the polishing and parboiling process.