ABSTRACT                                                                  -> Italian Site

This study tries to valuate the environmental damage caused by a moped during its "life cycle", including the whole phases of production, use and disposal of the product, with the method of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The model we chose for the study is the Aprilia SR50 DITECH, a particular moped, equipped with a innovative two stroke direct injection engine, that permits to obtain a great reduction of fuel consumption and pollution.
The method used to carry on the study is the Dutch method "Eco-indicator'99", while, for the calculation, was employed the SimaPro 5.0 software.
The analysis of the results makes evident that the new DITECH technology allows to get a considerable saving of the damage in respect of the previous catalized model.
The comparison with a car confirms the advantage of the moped, that begins to be a unfavourable condition when the car passengers rise to three.
The hypothetic complete recycling disposal, at least, permits to obtain a real environmental advantage, that can be converted in an economic advantage for the society only if the product design is oriented to a whole disassembly, permitting to separate all the components an its own materials