# A company produces two versions of a carrier bag: one made from plastic and one made from cotton. Explain why a selective life cycle assessment (LCA) of the cotton bag could be misused to make the cotton bag appear more environmentally friendly than the plastic bag.

> AQA GCSE Chemistry (8462) — 4.10.2 Life cycle assessment and recycling · Explain · 4 marks

## Mark scheme (4 marks)

1. A selective LCA only looks at certain stages of the life cycle (not all four stages)
2. Stages that show a favourable result for the cotton bag are included / unfavourable stages are omitted
3. Allocating numerical values to pollutant effects requires value judgements (so results can be manipulated)
4. The selective LCA could be used in advertising to support a misleading environmental claim about the cotton bag

## Key terms

- [life cycle assessment (LCA)](https://www.gradenine.co.uk/glossary/life-cycle-assessment-lca)

## Related

- [Revision notes for AQA GCSE Chemistry (8462)](https://www.gradenine.co.uk/learn)
- [How to answer "Explain" questions](https://www.gradenine.co.uk/tools/command-word-cheatsheet)
- [Practice this with AI marking (free)](https://www.gradenine.co.uk/start)

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Source: [GradeNine](https://www.gradenine.co.uk/q/a-company-produces-two-versions-of-ff6207ac) · Published by Druglandscape Ltd.