We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
A global consensus life cycle impact assessment method - GLAM: impacts on ecosystem quality
AI summary Read the abstract
Scientists built a unified tool to measure how things like pollution, climate change, land use, and even microplastics harm ecosystems worldwide, tracking species loss as one consistent number. This matters because it helps researchers and companies fairly compare environmental damage from different products and activities, including plastic pollution, so we can make smarter choices to protect the natural world we depend on.
The aim of this paper is to report and document the models integrated into the ecosystem quality part of the first life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) version of the GLAM (Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators and Methods) project. The focus is on endpoint models, and all included models provide characterization factors related to the loss of species richness, indicated in potentially disappeared fraction of species (PDF·yr). In the scoping phase eight impact categories have been identified as being of relevance and provided recent methodological developments that were mature enough to be included in the consensus model within GLAM. These include ecotoxicity, land use, water consumption, eutrophication (individually for marine and freshwater ecosystems), aquatic microplastic pollution, terrestrial acidification and climate change (individual models for terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems). Apart from harmonizing and developing these models, aspects of vulnerability have been included by further developing and applying the global extinction probability (GEP) concept. The eight impact categories provide in total more than 500 000 characterization factors (CFs) at country and global scale for the GLAM research version 1.1.2025.11, representing potential global species loss. Five of the impact categories (land use, water consumption, marine and freshwater eutrophication and terrestrial acidification) provide values at country levels as well as global averages. The other three (ecotoxicity, climate change and aquatic microplastics pollution) provide global CFs only. Climate change and marine eutrophication provide average CFs only, terrestrial acidification only marginal while all the others provide average and marginal CFs. The covered impact categories for the first time consistently represent potential global species losses in terms of PDF.
More Papers Like This
MarILCA characterization factors for microplastic impacts in life cycle assessment: Physical effects on biota from emissions to aquatic environments
AI summary Read the abstract
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.
Microplastic aquatic impacts included in Life Cycle Assessment
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers developed a method to include the environmental damage caused by microplastic pollution in standard lifecycle assessments (LCAs) — the tool companies use to measure a product's environmental footprint — and found that plastic pollution often dominated the toxicity impact scores for consumer packaging. Adding plastic pollution to these assessments could help identify where in a product's life cycle plastic losses cause the most ecological harm.
Plastic litter in life cycle assessment: Advances of the marine impacts in life cycle assessment international taskforce and application to case studies
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers reviewed advances in incorporating marine plastic litter impacts into life cycle assessment, focusing on recently developed indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem quality. The new indicators allow LCA practitioners to account for plastic pollution when comparing product systems and informing design choices.
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity of Plastics: Effect Factors for Life Cycle Impact Assessment.
AI summary Read the abstract
Scientists analyzed hundreds of studies to figure out how harmful plastic buildup in soil is to plants and small creatures like worms, creating a new scoring system to measure this damage. They found that plastics, especially tiny nanoplastics, are much less toxic to soil life than to water-based ecosystems, meaning we can't just assume plastic pollution affects land and water the same way. This matters because it gives researchers better tools to accurately assess how our growing plastic waste problem impacts farmland and the food chain, since soil is becoming a major dumping ground for plastic debris.
Towards a meaningful assessment of marine ecological impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA)
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers reviewed how life cycle assessment (LCA) methods — used to quantify industrial environmental impact — currently lack adequate indicators for marine biodiversity loss, and identified pathways to build quantitative cause-effect models for seven major ocean stressors including plastic debris, ocean acidification, and seabed damage.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.