The end of life stage represents the final phase of a Product life cycle, encompassing all Treatment activities performed after a product has completed its useful service life. This stage begins when a product is discarded or retired from active use and continues through to its ultimate fate, whether that be recycling, energy recovery, or final disposal.
ISO 14040 defines the product life cycle as "consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal". The end of life stage thus represents the culmination of this life cycle, where the product transitions from being a functional item to a material requiring management.
End of life encompasses several possible pathways. Recycling activities process discarded products to recover valuable materials as By-products that can displace determining products in other production activities. Intermediate treatment activities may process materials through multiple stages before they reach their ultimate destination. Final disposal activities represent the terminal point where Materials for treatment are permanently disposed of without further product outputs, such as through landfilling or incineration without energy recovery.
In Life Cycle Assessment, proper modelling of end of life is essential for capturing the complete environmental profile of a product system. The choice of end of life pathway significantly influences the overall environmental impacts, particularly when recycling or energy recovery displaces other production activities or energy generation. Understanding end of life processes is therefore critical for identifying opportunities to improve product sustainability through design for disassembly, material selection, and waste management strategies.
