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Microplastic aquatic impacts included in Life Cycle Assessment

Resources Conservation and Recycling 2024 22 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 55 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik J.H. Urbanus, Quirine M. Cohen, J.H. Urbanus, Quirine M. Cohen, Anna Schwarz, Anna Schwarz, Anna Schwarz, Anna Schwarz, Tim van Emmerik Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Anna Schwarz, Anna Schwarz, Sjoerd Herlaar, Sjoerd Herlaar, J.H. Urbanus, J.H. Urbanus, J.H. Urbanus, J.H. Urbanus, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Quirine M. Cohen, Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Quirine M. Cohen, Tim van Emmerik Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Quirine M. Cohen, Tim van Emmerik Quirine M. Cohen, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Joris T.K. Quik, J.H. Urbanus, J.H. Urbanus, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik J.H. Urbanus, Tim van Emmerik Milad Golkaram, Tim van Emmerik J.H. Urbanus, Milad Golkaram, Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik J.H. Urbanus, J.H. Urbanus, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Anna Schwarz, Anna Schwarz, Joris T.K. Quik, Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik Tim van Emmerik

Summary

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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