A review evaluating the gaps in plastic impacts in life cycle assessment

Abstract

Plastics provide numerous societal benefits but have adverse effects on the environment over their life cycles; however, the magnitude, time horizon, and scope of these impacts is uncertain, particularly for plastics that are lost to the environment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method intended to capture environmental impacts of a product from cradle-to-grave, and has often been applied to plastics. This article undertakes a systematic literature review of LCA and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods tailored to plastics, with particular focus on end-of-life stages and impacts from plastics lost to the environment. The review identified 1541 articles for screening, of which 51 were selected for review. Results show that even when LCA studies are largely focused on end-of-life, most ignore the risks of losing plastics to the environment, and omit the attendant impacts. Articles devoted to creating LCIA methods for plastics in the environment are growing in number, and focus primarily, on the effects of macroplastics in the marine environment. The review shows an urgent need to better understand the probability of plastic losses to the environment and their fate and transport, and develop impact characterization factors that better reflect the effects of plastics on humans and ecosystems.