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CIRAIG/marilca-cfs-mps: MarILCA Characterization Factors for Microplastics, Tire Particles and Cellulosic Fibers in Life Cycle Assessment: Regionalized impacts in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems v1.0.0
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Scientists have built a new toolkit that helps calculate how microplastics, tire dust, and synthetic fabric fibers harm ecosystems in oceans, rivers, and soil across different regions of the world. This matters because it gives researchers and companies a more precise way to measure the environmental damage of plastic pollution—information that could eventually guide better product designs and policies to reduce our exposure to these tiny pollutants. Note: this research focuses on environmental harm, not direct human health effects, but healthier ecosystems generally mean less microplastic contamination working its way into our food and water.
First public release of the multimedia MarILCA Characterization Factors (CFs), linking the emission of microplastics (MPs), tire and road wear particles (TRWPs), and cellulosic microfibers to ecosystem quality damage via physical effects on biota (PEOB). The CFs currently rely on the SimpleBox object-oriented (SBoo) model v2026.3.1 (10.5281/zenodo.19388881). This repository contains the CFs ready for implementation in LCA tools and methods, and will be updated if small adjustments are necessary (e.g., more degradation data for a specific polymer, or new version of SBoo). This version is associated with a paper currently under review, and available as a preprint outlining the methodology used: Saadi, Nadim and Hajjar, Carla and Ospital, Louisa and Quik, Joris and Corella-Puertas, Elena and Hids, Anne R. and Lebrun, Marion and Louvet, Juliette and Tang, Yibo and Thonemann, Nils and Boulay, Anne-Marie, MarILCA Characterization Factors for Microplastics, Tire Particles and Cellulosic Fibers in Life Cycle Assessment: Regionalized impacts in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6727270 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6727270
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CIRAIG/marilca-cfs-mps: MarILCA Characterization Factors for Microplastics, Tire Particles and Cellulosic Fibers in Life Cycle Assessment: Regionalized impacts in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems v1.0.0
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Scientists have developed a new scientific tool that measures how microplastics, tire dust, and synthetic clothing fibers actually harm ecosystems—like oceans, rivers, and soil—when they're released into the environment. This matters because it helps companies and researchers calculate the real environmental cost of products (from packaging to tires to clothes) throughout their entire life cycle, making it easier to compare which products cause less ecological damage. While this tool focuses on environmental harm rather than direct human health effects, healthier ecosystems generally mean cleaner water, soil, and food chains—all of which indirectly support human health.
MarILCA characterization factors for microplastics, tire particles and cellulosic fibers in life cycle assessment: the PEBBLE method for regionalized physical impacts in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems
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Researchers developed a method called PEBBLE to estimate how microplastics, tire wear particles, and fiber particles move through air, soil, rivers, and oceans, and how they affect ecosystems. It calculates numerical scores for different plastic types, sizes, and shapes, designed for use in environmental assessments comparing plastics and their alternatives.
MarILCA characterization factors for microplastic impacts in life cycle assessment: Physical effects on biota from emissions to aquatic environments
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Scientists have created a new scoring system that helps measure how much harm plastic pollution causes to ocean and freshwater life, factoring in things like plastic type, particle size, and shape. This matters because it gives companies and researchers a standardized way to compare the environmental impact of single-use plastics versus alternatives (like paper or reusable packaging), helping guide smarter choices about the products we use every day. While this study focuses on ecosystem harm rather than direct human health effects, understanding how microplastics accumulate and persist in waterways is a key step toward understanding potential risks to the food chain we're part of.
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This repository provides updated life cycle assessment (LCA) characterisation factors for the physical effects of microplastics — including both synthetic and cellulosic microfibres — on marine biota in water and sediment, enabling researchers and companies to more accurately quantify the environmental impact of plastic-containing products across their full lifecycle. Including cellulosic fibres from materials like rayon and viscose fills an important gap, since these semi-synthetic textiles are major sources of waterway microfibre pollution.
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