Microplastic aquatic impacts included in Life Cycle Assessment

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.