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Microplastic aquatic impacts included in Life Cycle Assessment
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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.
Although Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods assess a wide range of environmental impacts, ecological impacts of plastic pollution are not commonly included. Here, characterization factors of Polypropylene (PP), Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) microplastics were assessed. Fate was assessed through the multimedia fate model Simplebox4Plastics. Ecological effects were based on species sensitivity distributions. Macroplastic impacts were included though a conversion fraction. The characterization factors were included in ReCipe2016 method and applied to two consumer packaging films to show the relevance of including plastic pollution in LCAs. Plastic losses were assessed using material flow analysis. The freshwater and marine ecotoxicity midpoint indicators were dominated by plastic pollution impacts, whilst these impacts were limited on ecosystem quality as endpoint. Extending this methodology to additional polymers and additional methodological developments will help to obtain a more complete picture of plastic pollution in LCA and to identify effective mitigation options.
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Integrating impacts of microplastics in Life Cycle Assessment modelling: the work of the MarILCA group
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This paper describes the work of the MarILCA group to incorporate microplastic impacts into Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modeling, which evaluates the environmental footprint of products and processes. Currently, most LCA studies ignore plastic leakage to the environment, creating a blind spot for the real-world impacts of plastic production. Integrating microplastic impacts into LCA could help guide more sustainable material choices and policy decisions.
Plastic litter in life cycle assessment: Advances of the marine impacts in life cycle assessment international taskforce and application to case studies
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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.
Plastic litter in life cycle assessment: Advances of the marine impacts in life cycle assessment international taskforce and application to case studies
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This review examined advances in incorporating marine plastic litter impacts into life cycle assessment, addressing the long-standing gap in LCA methodology for accounting for plastic pollution as an environmental impact category. Recent progress by the MarILCA research group was highlighted as bringing LCA closer to properly reflecting biodiversity and ecosystem impacts from plastic waste.
Microplastic Pollution Distribution in Aquatic Environments
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This chapter examines the sources, distribution, and ecological impacts of microplastics in aquatic environments, and applies life cycle assessment methodologies to evaluate the broader environmental footprint of microplastic contamination throughout aquatic systems.
It is time to develop characterization factors for terrestrial plastic pollution impacts on ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment – a systematic review identifying knowledge gaps
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Researchers reviewed how plastic pollution is — and is not — accounted for in life cycle assessments (LCAs), which are tools used to measure a product's full environmental footprint. They found that while ocean plastic impacts have been partially modeled, freshwater and terrestrial plastic pollution, including microplastics, are still missing from standard environmental impact calculations, leaving a major blind spot in sustainability analysis.
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