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Life Cycle Assessment Approach for Mitigating Problems of Plastic Waste Management
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This review applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate the environmental and health impacts of plastic products across their entire lifecycle from raw material extraction through disposal, demonstrating how LCA can identify opportunities for reducing plastic's environmental burden. The chapter highlights that recycling achieves less than 20% of used plastics and emphasizes LCA as a tool for comparing conventional plastics against sustainable bioplastics to guide more responsible material choices.
In recent times, plastics have occupied an indispensable position in our lives owing to their unique advantageous features, namely, versatility in feedstock and properties, lightweight, easy fabrication, mass production, durability, etc. Hence, they are extensively used in various domains from commodity to industrial products including biomedical devices. However, most of them are non-biodegradable in nature and are highly persistent in the environment on exposure to physical, photo, and biological degradation processes. In turn, bioaccumulation of plastic debris results in detrimental effects on the health of living species and the environment and thereby posing a serious concern to all. Although, diverse approaches viz. 4R protocol has been prescribed, but in reality, recycling is unable to achieve even 20% of the used plastics. Hence, sustainable bioplastics have been recommended substantially over a couple of years for the reduction and management of solid plastic waste. However, till now only a negligible volume of sustainable plastics is used in practice. Under this context, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis is considered to be a potent approach for identification, quantification, and improvement of environmental and health implications of these plastic products. In addition, it can also provide a more comprehensive holistic overview of the life cycle of the materials from their raw materials, processing, and service to after disposal as well as associated materials, energy, and effluents/emission. Thus, this chapter aims to demonstrate the different environmental contributions offered by plastics in their entire life cycles, i.e. “cradle to grave.” In turn, various LCA studies available in the literature on the development of sustainable polymeric products over conventional non-biodegradable plastics are explicitly highlighted. Furthermore, different “end of life” (EoL) strategies including landfilling, incineration, composting, recycling, etc., are also discussed. In totality, the chapter would be helpful in understanding LCA study and the necessity of sustainable polymers for mitigating plastic waste management for creating a “green planet” for the present as well as future generations.
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This review critically evaluates the capabilities and limitations of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool for understanding the full environmental impacts of plastics across their supply chain, from production through end-of-life disposal. The authors argue that LCA can contextualize plastic impacts relative to alternative materials and reveal invisible environmental costs throughout the plastic life cycle, while also identifying key deficiencies in current LCA methodology for addressing plastic pollution.
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