Design Life-Cycle

Nathan Buchholz
ATLS 4519 Sustainable Design
University of Colorado Boulder
Instructor: Eldy Lazaro

Fly fishing is often thought of as a way to truly connect with nature and the fish you the anglers are seeking. It is a more sustainable way of fishing compared to large-scale fishing but how sustainable is the equipment? Fly rods are often kept for long periods and can be used by multiple generations of fishermen. This qualitative Life Cycle Assessment looks deep into the details of a common fly fishing rod by evaluating the product’s raw materials, production and manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, reuse and maintenance, and recycling and disposal. Specifically, this looks at Temple Fork Outfitter (TFO) fly rods. Each phase of the product’s life cycle will be addressed in three key areas, the raw materials used, the embodied energy consumed, and the waste and pollution created. The raw materials analysis will cover the main components of a fly rod in addition to the materials used in production and packaging. Next, the embodied energy will be estimated in each phase of the lifecycle. Similarly, the waste and pollution resulting from fly rods will be addressed in each phase. This LCA will provide readers with detailed insights into the impacts of fly fishing rods.

Raw Materials

A fly rod is composed of four main pieces, using various materials in their respective compositions. First and most important is the rod blank. Blanks are made out of carbon fiber sheets that are cut to size then rolled and pressed together (How it’s Made). While creating the blanks is not an energy-intensive process, creating carbon fiber sheets is. Most carbon fiber production uses the PAN method, which involves using the polymer polyacrylonitrile. After the polymer is spun and stretched to make fibers, it is heated to high temperatures to form the bonded carbon crystals (How carbon fibre is made). This process uses a lot of fossil fuels (or other forms of energy) to reach the final product. Once the blanks are the proper size, they are adjusted so that each section of the rod fits into one another. Now the blanks are ready to be painted to add color and the company's signature/brand (How it’s Made). The next piece added to the rod is the reel seat, which is made out of aluminum. First aluminum is mined in the form of bauxite. The alumina is then extracted from the bauxite and smelted down into raw aluminum (Waste from aluminum production). The aluminum must be cut and machined into the proper shape and size. During this process, water is used as a coolant. Additionally, there are additional fossil fuels used in this part of the process (Plunkert, 1999). Once the reel seat is attached, the maker adds a cork grip to the base of the rod (How it’s Made). The cork is stuck on by a mix of emory powder and epoxy. This mix has been shown to be hazardous to the respiratory system during its manufacturing process (Pharos). The cork comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. It is first removed, then dried out over a couple of months, before being rehydrated and reshaped for whatever purpose it has to serve (Raw material and production process - cork and wine). The cork itself does not require as much energy to make as the other parts of the fly rod. The final piece that is added to the rod is the guides (How it’s Made). These are the little loop that guides the fly line down the length of the rod. Each guide is wound on with thread that is covered in epoxy to hold it into place. These guides are the most common piece of maintenance on a fly rod. If a guide gets broken or bent beyond repair, it must be replaced.

Once the production of the rods is completed, they are wrapped in paper and put in a cardboard box. The rods are produced in South Korea and they must be shipped to distributors across the world (How it’s Made). This means fossil fuels are being used in the transportation phase of the rods lifecycle. Rods can sometimes be repurposed since they are made in sections. TFO produces rods in a way that makes them universally fit into past-produced sections of a rod. This means if you save old sections of rods that are still in good condition one could replace a section of the rod were it to break in use (How it’s Made). There is not a lot of information on recycling rods, however, people can repurpose them as decor sometimes or gift them to others when they no longer need them. When rods become waste it takes fossil fuels to transport them to waste facilities and eventually more fossil fuels to dispose of them.

Embodied Energy

The embodied energy of a product is the culmination of all the energy required during a product’s lifecycle. Within this, each phase of the product’s lifecycle can be assessed and areas for improvement in sustainability can be identified. These phases will be defined as raw materials acquisition, product manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use/reuse/maintenance, and recycling and disposal. Furthermore, each of the materials that create a flyrod will be addressed in each lifecycle phase respectively, those include carbon fiber, aluminum, cork, epoxy, and paint. 

To begin, the raw materials and acquisition phase is one of the more energy-intensive phases of the lifecycle. Aluminum alone is ranked among the most energy and CO2-intensive industrial processes (Balomenos et al., 2011). To make 1 kilogram of usable aluminum it is calculated to require 120 MJ and produces a byproduct of 12kg of CO2 (Ashby, 2021). Despite this, there is very little aluminum used for the fly rod meaning while it is energy-intensive, it is not the biggest contributor in this lifecycle.  Even more intensive is carbon fiber, using 480 MJ of energy and producing 35kg of CO2 in the production of 1 kg of carbon fiber (Ashby, 2021). Additionally, since the rod blank is created entirely of carbon fiber, it is by far the most used material in the creation of a fly rod. Finishing the rod composition are the cork and epoxy. Around 33kg of diesel is used per square meter in cork extraction (Tártaro et al., 2016). The only other material left is the paint which will be addressed in the product manufacturing phase.

Before the TFO factory can fully assemble the fly rod, some of the raw materials must be made into components. The carbon fiber sheets are cut to appropriate size, I could not find exact data on this but I would assume fossil fuels are used for the cutting machinery. The aluminum must be drawn out to a thin size and bent into the proper shape for the guides. Wire drawing uses 35MJ of energy for each kilogram of wire it produces (Ashby, 2021). I could not find any resources to give me data on how much energy is used inside the fly rod factory. The carbon fiber sheets must be rolled and fitted, both processes use machinery and some amount of fossil fuels. The attachment of the guides and grip is done with manual labor, but there is some energy cost for the shaping of the cork grip. Lastly, paint is applied to the rods, some rods get full paint, others just a stamp of the company. The painting process uses 55MJ per square meter of paint (Ashby, 2021). While this number is large, the surface area of a rod is not large and therefore this is not an energy-intensive part of the assembly.

I could not find the information on where TFO sources their materials so I am making transportation assumptions based on their factory and who the largest producers of the resources they use are. To start, Canada and Russia are the largest exporters of aluminum, however, it is a common resource across the world so I would not expect them to ship it to South Korea for this (Plunkert, 1999). Furthermore, South Korea is one of the largest producers of carbon fiber (Ellringmann et al., 2011). As a result, I think it is relatively likely that much of the materials used for the production of these rods are coming either from within South Korea or from neighboring countries. The one material that is likely shipped in from farther away is cork, as most of its production comes from European countries (Tártaro et al., 2016). Using these assumptions it can be assumed that materials are shipped either via boat or plane with some truck used for ground transportation in South Korea. Furthermore, TFO has many distributors across most states in the USA (TFO, 2022). Rods are likely shipped via plane and truck to these stores from South Korea, resulting in a large consumption of energy and fossil fuels. 

There is minimal energy in the use, reuse, and maintenance of fly rods. There is some energy consumed when used rods are sold to new owners due to the potential shipping. Additionally, a rod could need a new part which would also require shipping. It is a similar trend to the recycling and disposal of rods. There is not currently any easy way to recycle fly rods. They generally have long lifespans and cannot be recycled or kept for parts. In theory, one could strip the rod of its guides, use some chemical to remove the epoxy, and cut away the cork to break apart the rod components. Then the tiny pieces of aluminum could be recycled. Recycling aluminum is one of the most available recycling methods there is, using only about 5% of the energy that it takes to produce new aluminum (aluminum.org).

Waste and Emissions

Waste is another major thing to consider at each stage of a product's life cycle. Often waste is just thought of at the end of the lifecycle, what gets thrown away or what is left over. This will explore a wider scope of the waste and pollution that exists within a fly fishing rod’s lifespan. 

In the raw material acquisition stage, aluminum produces the most waste and pollution of all the fly rod materials. It is important to also keep in mind that there is very little aluminum used on a fly rod so it is not necessarily the largest impact. Aluminum has three main waste byproducts throughout its production, carbon dioxide, red mud, and water. In China, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, for every tonne of aluminum produced 21 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere (Waste from aluminum production). When aluminum oxide is extraded from the bauxite there is leftover residue known as red mud. Red mud consists of silica, iron, and aluminum with small amounts of other toxic substances. Since red mud has a pH of 9, it can be very dangerous to aquatic ecosystems if it were to contaminate bodies of water (Waste from aluminum production). The final waste byproduct is water which comes mostly in the form of water vapor and is produced at alumina and reduction plants. The technology of the plants matters when it comes to the amount of water used but on average it is 14.62 gallons for every pound of aluminum (Conklin, 1994). Some plants also have the capability of capturing the water vapor and recycling it but this is not always the case. 

Carbon fiber is the main material for the fly rod since it makes up a majority of the shaft. To make carbon fiber, it must be heated to very high temperatures. As a result, for every ton of carbon fiber produced, 20 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted (TORAY, Life Cycle Assessment).  During the carbonizing phase of production, the non-carbon atoms are released as gasses. This includes water vapor, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide among others (How Is Carbon Fiber Made? 2017). Another material in the flyrod is the cork used in the handles. When the cork is ground and extracted there is a cork powder that is left as waste. Cork powder can have a few different uses. It is most commonly used for combustion as an energy source. Additionally, it can be mixed with glue to create cheaper versions of cork objects, most commonly wine stoppers. 

During the manufacturing process of the fly fishing rod, there is waste that comes from different parts of the production and in different forms. It is hard to find the exact amount of carbon dioxide that the factory would produce for a fly rod, however, they do use some machinery so there must be carbon emissions. There is some physical waste however not a ton. There are small timings made to the carbon fiber sheets that would add up over time with mass rod production. Furthermore, there will be some excess thread and epoxy as it is used for the application of the guides to the rod. Finally, it is reasonable to assume that there is some small amount of paint waste during that part of the process.

During the transportation of the fly rods, they are packaged into cardboard boxes. Rods are skinny and can be packaged relatively efficiently however this cardboard is still just waste after transport is complete. Again I could not find information specifically on where the fly rod factory sources all of their materials so I am making some estimations based on the data from around the world. The TFO factory is located in South Korea and the rods are distributed within the US. Cargo is likely shipped using a combination of planes, trucks, and maybe ships. There is not a lot of waste to account for in the use, reuse, and maintenance of a fly rod. From the little information I could find, it seems that most fly rods are kept for a long time and may sometimes be repurposed for display. When fly rods need to be fixed, the largest piece of waste I could think of would be replacing a guide which would leave a small amount of thread and aluminum. 

Rods are not often disposed of traditionally like trash unless they are truly broken beyond use. They are commonly gifted to friends and family when they are no longer needed by the original owner. When they are thrown away there is not much that can be recycled. Thus, they are often taken to landfills for disposal. This has a couple of forms of waste and pollution. There must be some carbon emissions related to the transportation of the trash and depending on how they are destroyed. If they are simply put in a landfill this also has pollution impacts.

Work Cited

Ana S. Tártaro, Teresa M. Mata, António A. Martins, Joaquim C.G. Esteves da Silva, Carbon footprint of the insulation cork board, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 143, 2017, Pages 925-932, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.028.

Appendix B—Eco- and supply-chain data, Editor(s): Michael F. Ashby, Materials and the Environment (Third Edition), Butterworth-Heinemann, 2021, Pages 403-429, ISBN 9780128215210, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821521-0.15002-9. 

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