Design Life-Cycle

 The Life Cycle of a Life Saver/Flotation Device

Angel Long

DES 40A 005

13 March 2026

Life Saving, not fully Life Taking

When we think of bodies of water, our mind undergoes vast ranges from a tiny kiddie pool found in our backyards all the way to the giant seas that still contain mysterious beings we have yet to discover; yet, whenever we are found in these spaces, the inclusion of one product can always be assured: A Life Saver. You might reminisce about older Spongebob Squarepants episodes, where a life saver reveals itself as the “Welcome to Bikini Bottom” sign. While the purpose is not explicitly stated to the audience, the correlation the products possess with the sea forms a straight line. This particular product utilizes a buoyancy texture in order to keep endangered or drowning individuals and beings afloat in large bodies of water. Originally referred to as the “Kisby Ring,” the lifebuoy initially started as a “cork-filled canvas” with ropes and eventually transformed into its current concept (Banyan). However, while the product serves a critical purpose, many issues arise due to its creation process. Life saving rotation devices (produced from materials like vinyl, polyurethane foam, and reflective tape) undergo production from machines and human labor, utilizing energies like heat and chemicals in order to create a buoyant texture. This product, while mandatory for safety/security purposes, exemplifies how the creation of a product results in harm to our environment, as its tedious process overproduces plastic that eventually remains as waste.

All of the materials included in the making of a life saver revolve around machine usage, implying that there is a strong need for manual labor and machine work that contradicts the efficiency of energy usage. To begin understanding the life cycle of a life saver, we must acknowledge its main materials required in manufacturing, involving polyurethanes and vinyl. Through the use of chemical energy, the process transforms polyols and isocyanates into the desired foam needed in life savers: polyurethane (“Novel chemistry for greener polyurethane”). And while this fulfills the supply criteria by creating mass amounts of foam, the chemical energy utilized in this pathway omits higher levels of CO2, creating a toxic and unhealthy environment to all those that are exposed (“Novel chemistry for greener polyurethane”). This is an important detail to note because the use of energy for a health-damaging process implies that the energy plays an inefficient role throughout the making. In a procedure that strongly bases its result on human involvement and energy consumption, creating a push-and-pull relationship where the manual labor that is needed gets disrupted invites more harmful energy consumption; therefore, it can be deemed more inefficient rather than helpful and disturb the overall manufacturing process. In addition to the inefficiency, heat energy involved during the manufacturing process may further the complication of the production. While we’ve established machine work and involvement in energy, we must recognize the manual/human labor that contributes to the difficulties. A popular and heavily done method when dealing with plastic labels itself as process heat, a procedure that includes the usage of heat in order to mold or weld together plastic pieces permanently (Heater). Like most heating methods, this one lacks sustainability as it’s often completed by hand rather than machinery. If done by an automated format, the heat would spread unevenly, leading to wasted material and inconsistent product outcomes for a critical item. Due to these setbacks, energy continues to be used in an inefficient manner, encouraging trial and error runs that essentially worsen the conditions involved in the creation environment. And during its poor management within the manufacturing process, recognizing the overconsumption of energy and the pollution that occurs in the transportation portion of the cycle plays an important part as well.

Due to the high demand of life savers on boats/ships, carbon dioxide emissions increase heavily during product transportation and exemplifies a heavy reliance on fuel. With marine regulations implementing a stronger demand and need for life saving rotation devices worldwide, the market value that currently stands at $1.45 billion is expected to shoot up to $1.8 billion in 2034 (“Lifebuoy Market Analysis”). As the purchase rates for lifebuoys gradually increase, the need to expand the supply continuously grows as well. However, due to these conditions, the plastic-based product mainly travels through air and waterways for transportation (“Transportation”). All aviation related travels undergo fuel energy, leading to mass productions of carbon dioxide. This, in combination with rail travel and water transportation, all accumulate to massive energy power, ultimately leading to an extended effect of a polluted environment. Society’s dependency on such forms of transportation create an imbalanced relationship between energy and its negative outcomes. We take and go through processes that need an overflowing amount of work in order to create even more products that we deem necessary, but being able to separate our needs/necessities from the items we desire proves to be difficult. As our factories continue to produce life buoys, our levels of plastic become too much to bear, and energy gets outweighed by negative impacts that derive from the surplus amount of life savers needed. These circumstances further highlight the caution that must be taken when we go through numerous cycles of fuel, as the more that is used can ultimately be used against us as a society. This pollution build-up eventually leads to a mass production of plastic with no solutions to reuse nor recycle.

The creation of life savers is insanely plastic heavy, essentially causing plastic waste to continuously grow without having any renewable solutions; yet, despite the overproduction of plastic, more eco-friendly alternatives surface. When taking account of the manufacturing process, polyurethane assists in promoting energy efficiency rather than overconsuming (“Polyurethanes”). Fossil fuels become less destructive, and the long-term effect not only decreases consumption in the making of life saving flotation devices, but the overall quality of life when applied to everyday environments. Efficiency reminds us of how precious and delicate energy truly is, potentially setting a tone that influences our general outlook on how to treat energy. Another great attribute that occurs when making life buoys relates to a massive decrease in carbon dioxide emissions (McClements). One of the biggest concerns about mass production is the overall effect on the environment, which tends to skew towards damaging impacts towards nature. Yet, when creating polyurethane, emissions greatly decrease due to the use of natural gas and crude oil, saving more energy and resulting in less environmental harm (Liang). And while the life saving flotation devices themselves are non-renewable, their materials during the production process are recyclable, serving multiple purposes for other everyday objects. Polyurethane typically comes made in larger quantities, and as more economically-friendly alternatives arise, transportation of these goods will gradually become more efficient. Overall, despite the overwhelming negative impacts that occur throughout the process of manufacturing a life saving rotation device, inevitable solutions arise to prevent more damage and establish eco-friendly ways to navigate around the issues.

Life savers serve a valuable and needed purpose, as their main and only objective relates to saving those in need of help when struggling in water. Depending on the size of the ship, a set amount of life buoys must remain on the ship to prevent as much danger and chaos as possible. However, despite their level of necessity, qualities that range from negative to positive surround the product, making it hard to establish a proper opinion on the topic. Some might argue that the production process and results of making a life ring serve more harm than good, as carbon emissions continue to increase and plastic production provides no benefits. Due to a vast scale of energy consumption and mass production of plastic, the environment and its people are exposed to suffering as both situations lead to a decline in health. Manual labor gets rewarded with exposure to toxins, while nature gets rewarded with carbon emission that decreases the quality and sparks climate change. In terms of results, the negative effect outweighs the positive, as the overconsumption of energy leads to more over production that eventually leads to a surplus of waste. But while it’s easier to be pessimistic about such changes and struggles, attempts to battle climate change and prevent waste are being made. Through less CO2-demanding procedures, progress to utilize energy efficiently expands, and the excess plastic that gets produced redirects to other objects and projects that society needs. 

While researching this project, my perspective shifted a couple of times. I went in assuming the worst and that more harm took place with no effort to encourage improvement, yet perplexed due to my guilt for assuming the worst. Life savers serve a wonderful purpose, but putting each and every single ring to use proves to be difficult, inevitably turning into non-reusable waste. Forming an opinion can be difficult when you don’t have all the information you need. While researching I struggled to search for the right questions, as there would be situations where I wanted to find a certain type of information only to get lost in the sea of information. Due to the constant broadness I stumbled upon, my opinions were based on common knowledge regarding plastic, so I attempted to search for other factors that may assist in establishing my overall opinion. Eventually, I was able to find more details relating to the specific process and direct purpose of polyurethane, allowing me to understand the product a lot more.

Bibliography

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McClements, Dean. “Polyurethane: What It Is, History, and How It's Made.” Xometry, 7 June 2024, https://www.xometry.com/resources/materials/polyurethane/. Accessed 13 March 2026.

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Andy Lo

Des 040A

3/13/2026

The overall topic that me and my group have decided to pick is the life preserver ring. The product has been known to be used on vessels that travel the sea, with life guards, and on light lamps to save a drowning swimmer. For my specific role that I chose to search in the life-cycle analysis is the Waste section. At certain moments, it was pretty hard to gain info about the life preserver ring since nobody talks about the harmful effects that the life preserver ring can bring while saving another’s life. However, even if it does save lives, the life ring is made entirely of plastic, which has brought dangers to the environment due to its own material and how it was made. Byproducts like microplastics, chemicals, high greenhouse gases emissions, the difficulties of recycling and pollution that comes from it.

One of the raw materials that are key to making the life preserver ring is plastic. Plus the CO2 emissions that come with it. One of them is polyethylene, a plastic made entirely of ethylene gas. A peer reviewed article about polyethylene said, “The environmental impact of polyethylene in landfills is, however, significant, because the material remains solid for a very long time”. (Jeremic Dusan). This is significant because the life preserver ring is made up entirely of this type of material. Meaning that it will share similar recyclable methods and features just like polyethylene. Resulting that the life ring can’t simply just go away very easily if it were to just be landed in the landfill or recycling bin because it will stay solid. Leaving less room in landfills to put trash or recyclables because of this material and the life preserver ring taking space. With ethylene gas being made of fossil fuels, this ties into a piece of evidence about fossil fuels. According to a website, “Plastic Pollution Coalition”, it talks about how we have too much plastic than we can bear because fossil fuel industries want to keep making more plastic for products. Even when people want to fight back against it, the fossil fuel industries are coming up with solutions that don’t really do anything but to simply continue production. (Plastic Pollution…), This is significant because it shows confirmation that plastic production is still going on while we’re trying to figure out how to get rid of heaps of recycling. Meaning more fossil fuels are being churned out and burned because the fossil fuel industries wanted to keep making big money for their company. Meaning more CO2 emissions are being released into the atmosphere. Now with gathering the materials needed to make the life preserver ring, the next stage is manufacturing it.

Manufacturing the life preserver rings comes with the cost of even more production of plastic, resulting in more production and the use of chemicals for it. The same website, “Plastic Pollution Coalition” says, “Additionally, even when plastics are recycled, they are most often “downcycled,” or made into items of lesser value and quality (like turning plastic water bottles into plastic fleece jackets or carpet fiber), and continue to cause considerable pollution.” (Plastic Pollution…). This is significant because even if we do recycle the plastic, that plastic that’s gonna be used for another product is going to be down-graded and in worse quality than the others. Which then continues the cycle of bad plastic products being recycled to continue making more bad plastic made products, which didn’t solve the pollution of plastic. The manufacturing of polyethylene and polyurethane foam by chemicals comes from the website “Glasdon”, it talked about how they struggled on how to keep the life-preserver ring buoyant and won’t absorb the water and sink. Which then in the modern era, it’s manufactured from polyethylene and is filled with polyurethane foams to keep it a float. (Glasdon). This is significant because polyethylene is made entirely of ethylene, a type of gas that has been refined and turned into the polyethylene which is a plastic used for the life preserver ring. Meaning more chemicals will have to be used in order to make these types of plastics, and that it’s well known that plastic is a main type of material to be used in products causing it to increase production, meaning more fuel being used for more plastic. Another piece of evidence of chemical usage comes from the website, an peer reviewed article about “Biodegradability and Ecotoxitiy…”, it talks about how polyurethane foams are produced by chemical reactions between polyols and isocyanetes” (Skleničková, Kateřina, et al). This is significant because it shows us the material that is needed to make the life preserver ring gets its floatation from by chemical reactions. Having to use chemicals to have this type of reaction will result in industrial waste and environmental pollution because of gathering and using these chemicals. Not to mention how to remove or get rid of it. After the manufacturing stage, the product is made, now it needs transportation in order for it to be sent all around the world.

In the transportation stage of the life cycle analysis, this produces more CO2 emissions from vehicles. The website named, “Amazon”, sells life preserver rings. Meaning that they delivered it in either vehicles like vans or even a plane. Which means that more CO2 emissions are being emitted because they’re the power source of the trucks and plane. However there’s more to it. With Amazon being known to have plastic packaging in their boxes. This would allow some of the plastic wrappings or packaging to fall off, creating litter. Resulting in adding more pollution to the world. Since the products are being transported by vans or planes, meaning plastic could be littered around the word or place by place. Leading more to the plastic pollution that the world is facing now. After transporting the product around the world, the person who has the item can finally use it.

With the product now being in the hands of its user, they are finally able to use the product, however that still doesn’t leave the environmental impacts that this product when used will bring. According to the website, “The Ocean Cleanup”, it talked about how plastic in the ocean is a danger to marine animals. Plastic’s durability is a long period, which has led to them finding plastic back from the 1960s. Plastic could be a source of food that marine animals mistake, either eating it or getting entangled by it. (The Ocean Cleanup). This evidence is significant because, thanks to the plastic’s durability, they are able to stay in the ocean without someone intentionally or an organism removing the plastic from the ocean. The fact that they were able to find plastic from the 1960s shows how long plastic could really be out there in the ocean, poisoning the ocean. The marine animals are endangered by plastic because of accidentally eating it or getting entangled by it. Which poses a threat to the local ecosystems in the ocean. It is known that life preserver rings can break, leaving bits of pieces and bits of it floating in the ocean, adding more plastic which also makes microplastics. A website that talked about microplastics is “Surface Characteristics and Biotoxicity of Airborne…”, it talked about how microplastics can be absorbed into plants, into our food as well , and into our air as well. It allows the microplastics to absorb the pollutant in the air and potentially go into your body or umbrella (Yuan, et al). This evidence is significant because this also shows a clear sign about how dangerous microplastics can be. On how it can also seriously harm fish and animals in the sea who would eat the plastic bag, causing microplastics to be covered everywhere in its mouth. Plus it’s a danger to humans to consume food that has microplastics in it. Now, after using the product multiple times, it’s time for it to be disposed & recycled.

In the last stage: disposal & recycle stage, there comes a bit of challenges of recycling it and disposing of it. The website, “Plastic Pollution Coalition” says, “Additionally, even when plastics are recycled, they are most often “downcycled,” or made into items of lesser value and quality (like turning plastic water bottles into plastic fleece jackets or carpet fiber), and continue to cause considerable pollution.” (Plastic Pollution…). This is significant because even if we do recycle the plastic, that plastic that’s gonna be used for another product is going to be down-graded and in worse quality than the others. Which then continues the cycle of bad plastic products being recycled to continue making more bad plastic made products, which didn’t solve the pollution of plastic. Not to mention again, bringing back how the life preserver ring is made of polyethylene, meaning it will gain the traits of that material. Which results in it being able to last long, staying solid and that it’s resistant to natural decay. Meaning that we can’t just recycle it or dispose of it normally by just throwing it into a recycling bin or landfill, they’ll have to use the method to melt down the plastic. Meaning more CO2 emissions and resources will have to be used in order to dispose of it.

In conclusion, the life preserver ring’s life cycle analysis, for the waste section, shows the byproducts from each of the 5 different stages of the life cycle analysis of the life preserver ring which is are microplastics, chemicals, the pollution, greenhouse gases and that it’s primarily made of plastic, meaning it would be difficult to recycle it. Microplastics can be in the air, in our food, and are dangerous for humans to inhale, even animals and plants are affected by this. Microplastics are able to absorb pollutants in the air, so digesting it would be bad for our bodies as it will affect our internal systems. Chemicals like ethylene,polyols and isocyanetes are being used to make polyethylene foams and polyethylene. However, we know that plastic production is at an all time high, meaning more and more chemicals and energy is being spent to create even more. Greenhouse gases, especially CO2 emissions are connected to the plastic production being high, because more fossil fuels or electricity are being used in factories to produce plastic, meaning more CO2 is released in the air, affecting our ozone layer. Also that the life preserver ring is a product in many stores and websites like, “Amazon”, this means that transportation on trucks carries the product place to place which is also releasing more CO2 in the air. Then finally, the difficulty of recycling the product, which is overall plastic. The state where polyethylene in landfills really don’t decompose and stay solid for a long time, which means that it will hog space in the landfill, causing shortage of space to place other trash, other recycling, and other plastics in the landfill. Also if the plastic were to be recycled, it will be turned into a lesser quality and valued product and the cycle continues, meaning the problem of plastic pollution is not solved yet. There are options to recycle plastic and the ability to dispose of them, but that will cost even more energy to do. Based on the entire waste section of the LCA analysis, it being made of plastic and how to make the product will harm the environment, but it still saves people’s lives when in danger in water, so it’s still a pretty good product in the end.

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“Amazon.com : 23" Life Ring, Pool Life Ring with 98.4FT Water Floating Lifesaving Rope,Boat Safety Throw Rings with Reflective Tape,Include Rings Buoy S-Shaped Bracket : Sports & Outdoors.” Amazon.com, 2026, www.amazon.com/Preserver-Floating-Lifesaving-Reflective-Orange-1/dp/B0D2H1HWMP?th=1. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.

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Jeremic, Dusan. “Polyethylene.” Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 1 Aug. 2014, pp. 1–42, https://doi.org/10.1002/14356007.a21_487.pub3.

This article goes into detail on what Polyethylene is, what material is, the chemicals that were made to make the thing, and the molecular level of it. This didn't really help my research until I found the environmental aspects. Then I realized the life ring was made of this stuff, meaning disposing of it or recycling it would be hard because it’s plastic.

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