Impacts of plastics in the environment

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Plastic litter affects species/ecosystems through ingestion or entanglement and potentially human health through ingestion or inhalation. Environmental decision makers have started to take action to address this issue, however, life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool commonly used to assist environmental decision making, does not yet factor in the consequences of plastic litter. This limits the application of LCA, since potential environmental benefits of measures (e.g. bans or substitution) cannot be properly assessed and could lead to adverse effects on ecosystems and human health. The main objective of this research program is to develop new models to include the impacts of plastic litter in LCA.