Does "polyester fibre production, finished" (ecoinvent) include all upstream processes?

Question

I am currently working on an LCA, where i use the proces of "polyester fibre production, finished". Does this proces include the PET granulate production all the way back to e.g. the extraction proces of crude oil (upstream total). 

From ecoQuery they state in the dataset:

- it "covers polyester production, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) granulate as input by the melt spinning process"

- "The inventory takes into account the required amount of inputs to produce 1kg of polyester fibres."
 

... but it also states, that the "activity starts with the provision of PET material". It seems a little ambiguous to me. To my understanding this means that PET/polyester production is NOT included.
If this is true i suppose i should connect this process with the preceding processes (fx. 'polyethylene terephthalate, granulate, bottle grade').

I apologize in advance for probably misunderstanding this fundamentally:)
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hello jtff,

The process includes upstream processes. The process itself with its inputs and outputs starts with the input of PET (with all the upstream impacts).

The "process" is different from the "upstream process".

You can always open the unit process to see what is included in the process, or access the inputs and outputs via ecoquery.

I hope this helps. :)