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Item type:Publication, Expanding life cycle impact assessment to account for marine plastic emissions: a case study for the fishing industry(Springer Science+Business Media, 2026-03-01)Fishing is a major source of plastic pollution, which is harmful to marine life. Life cycle assessment studies do not usually include plastic emissions in their inventory or impact assessment. There has been a recent surge of methodological development to include plastic impacts in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). This study of anchoveta and cod fishing included dissipative plastic emissions in the inventory data and tests currently available characterisation factors for plastic pollution impacts to identify their importance for ecosystem quality damage. Life cycle inventory (LCI) data was gathered for two systems that produce 1 tonne of fish product (anchoveta fishmeal, consumer packaged cod). LCIA calculations were performed using IMPACT World+ to calculate ecosystem quality damage. In addition, plastic impact pathways for the physical effects from microplastics on biota (both water and sediment-dwelling organisms) and entanglement were included. The fishing stage dominates the ecosystem quality (EQ) damage results for both systems. For cod fished with gillnets, production of antifouling coating is the dominant contributor. Entanglement results completely dominate the picture for anchoveta. Overall, freshwater ecotoxicity (long term) causes the largest overall EQ damage. The emissions that contribute the most to freshwater ecotoxicity (long term) are metals from fishing gear production (mainly associated with the lead in the bottom rope), followed by polyethylene production for the cod system. For anchoveta, production of phosphoric acid and iron sulphate for fishmeal processing contribute the most. The second most important impact category is climate change (long term), due to emissions of fossil-derived carbon dioxide, as well as refrigerant R500 for anchoveta. Even with 100% fragmentation into microplastics, physical effects on biota account for less than 0.1% of the total EQ damage. Including the impacts associated with plastic emissions is important in LCAs where plastic materials or products are used. Without the inclusion of the plastic impacts, LCAs will not capture all of the impacts that plastics can have on the ecosystem. This study shows that whether parts, or the whole of the gear (including ropes) are included affects the importance of the mismanaged waste losses in the value chain, as well as the microplastic impacts associated with fishing gear losses at sea. The timescale for when lost fishing gear can still entangle organisms is extremely important for the overall damage caused by fishing and should be investigated further.1 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Consideration of Plastic Emissions in Life Cycle Assessments(Springer International Publishing, 2025-01-01)Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the method most frequently used to systematically assess the environmental impacts of products and services over their entire life cycle. Several environmental impacts, such as global warming or ozone depletion, are covered. Life cycle assessments do not yet allow, however, for considering the consequences of plastic waste leaking into the environment. Thus, plastic products such as PET bottles might appear beneficial (having, for example, a lower carbon footprint than alternatives such as glass bottles) although they contribute to potentially harmful effects if released into the environment. In addition, the absence of an impact assessment method addressing plastic emissions limits the possibility of analyzing the trade-offs between impact categories. In order to provide an overview of the state of the art of plastic emissions in LCA, the chapter begins with an overview of the LCA methodology in general. There follows a description of the potential impact pathways of plastic emissions using a framework developed by the International Working Group MarILCA on Marine Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment. Within the framework, relevant existing impact categories are discussed, and new ones are proposed. The following section describes accounting methods for plastic emissions and ways of defining plastic flows in life cycle inventory (LCI). The already developed approaches addressing plastic emissions in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) are then described in relation to the framework and, in addition, examples of applications (case studies) are presented. Finally, future research needs are discussed.1