Integrating impacts from marine plastics in Life Cycle Assessment

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Marine litter, namely plastic, is a growing environmental problem and environmental decision makers are beginning to take actions/implement regulations that aim to reduce plastic use and waste mismanagement. The government of Canada has already announced that it will ban harmful single-use plastics as early as 2021, following the lead from The European Commission. The Canadian statement also specified that the measures taken would be "grounded in scientific evidence", meaning that evidence that such bans and new solutions are an improvement from an environmental perspective are needed to support these decisions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for supporting environmental decision making that is specifically designed to allow for the identification of potential trade-offs between product alternatives e.g. a single use plastic versus paper cup. However, whilst LCA is widely used in support of decision making, there is currently no methodology for impact assessment of marine litter, including plastic, in LCA. This potentially limits the application of LCA as a tool for highlighting potential trade-offs between impact categories when assessing decisions such as plastic bans or innovative solutions. This research aims at developing the different impact pathway mechanisms in order to propose characterization models and factors, allowing the integration of impacts generated by plastic in the marine environment within the Life Cycle Assessment framework and methods. The different research axis included in this program focus on microplastics released into the aquatic and marine environment, and their complete impact pathway modelling: 1) from the fate of the plastic into the different environmental compartment and sub-compartments, 2) the exposure of the species to the particles, and 3) the effect this plastic exposure can have on the ecosystem quality damage category in LCA. In addition, the degradation of macroplastic litter into microplastic contributing to this impact pathway is also quantified. This program will therefore allow the consideration in an LCA of the potential impacts of the end-of-life of plastic-based products when occurring outside of the well-managed waste systems. This information will inform the decision makers looking at different alternatives (e.g. for a product or a packaging) to compare the potential impacts and benefits of each alternatives, without being misled, either by a perceived problem, nor by a result which does not include such impacts. By including these potential damages into LCA models, impact displacements - such as choosing an alternative that would increase global warming potential because it avoids single use plastic - can be informed by the LCA results and decisions indeed be "grounded in scientific evidence".