ArticlePDF Available

An effect factor approach for quantifying the impact of plastic additives on aquatic biota in life cycle assessment

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Purpose Plastic pervades now almost every aspect of our daily lives, but this prosperity has led to an increasing amount of plastic debris, which is now widespread in the oceans and represents a serious threat to biota. However, there is a general lack of consideration regarding marine plastic impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper presents a preliminary approach to facilitate the characterization of chemical impacts related to marine plastic within the LCA framework. Methods A literature review was carried out first to summarize the current state of research on the impact assessment of marine plastic. In recent years, efforts have been made to develop LCA-compliant indicators and models that address the impact of marine littering, entanglement, and ingestion. The toxicity of plastic additives to marine biota is currently a less understood impact pathway and also the focus of this study. Relevant ecotoxicity data were collected from scientific literature for a subsequent additive-specific effect factor (EF) development, which was conducted based on the USEtox approach. Extrapolation factors used for the data conversion were also extracted from reliable sources. Results and discussion EFs were calculated for six commonly used additives to quantify their toxicity impacts on aquatic species. Triclosan shows an extremely high level of toxicity, while bisphenol A and bisphenol F are considered less toxic according to the results. Apart from additive-specific EFs, a generic EF was also generated, along with the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) illustrating the gathered data used to calculate this EF. Further ecotoxicity data are expected to expand the coverage of additives and species for deriving more robust EFs. In addition, a better understanding of the interactive effect between polymers and additives needs to be developed. Conclusions This preliminary work provides a first step towards including the impact of plastic-associated chemicals in LCA. Although the toxicity of different additives to aquatic biota may vary significantly, it is recommended to consider additives within the impact assessment of marine plastic. The generic EF can be used, together with a future EF for adsorbed environmental pollutants, to fill a gap in the characterization of plastic-related impacts in LCA.
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-022-02046-9
LCIA OFIMPACTS ONHUMAN HEALTH ANDECOSYSTEMS
An effect factor approach forquantifying theimpact ofplastic
additives onaquatic biota inlife cycle assessment
YiboTang1· RoseNangahMankaa1 · MarziaTraverso1
Received: 22 October 2021 / Accepted: 23 March 2022
© The Author(s) 2022
Abstract
Purpose Plastic pervades now almost every aspect of our daily lives, but this prosperity has led to an increasing amount of
plastic debris, which is now widespread in the oceans and represents a serious threat to biota. However, there is a general
lack of consideration regarding marine plastic impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper presents a preliminary
approach to facilitate the characterization of chemical impacts related to marine plastic within the LCA framework.
Methods A literature review was carried out first to summarize the current state of research on the impact assessment of
marine plastic. In recent years, efforts have been made to develop LCA-compliant indicators and models that address the
impact of marine littering, entanglement, and ingestion. The toxicity of plastic additives to marine biota is currently a less
understood impact pathway and also the focus of this study. Relevant ecotoxicity data were collected from scientific litera-
ture for a subsequent additive-specific effect factor (EF) development, which was conducted based on the USEtox approach.
Extrapolation factors used for the data conversion were also extracted from reliable sources.
Results and discussion EFs were calculated for six commonly used additives to quantify their toxicity impacts on aquatic
species. Triclosan shows an extremely high level of toxicity, while bisphenol A and bisphenol F are considered less toxic
according to the results. Apart from additive-specific EFs, a generic EF was also generated, along with the species sensitivity
distribution (SSD) illustrating the gathered data used to calculate this EF. Further ecotoxicity data are expected to expand
the coverage of additives and species for deriving more robust EFs. In addition, a better understanding of the interactive
effect between polymers and additives needs to be developed.
Conclusions This preliminary work provides a first step towards including the impact of plastic-associated chemicals in
LCA. Although the toxicity of different additives to aquatic biota may vary significantly, it is recommended to consider
additives within the impact assessment of marine plastic. The generic EF can be used, together with a future EF for adsorbed
environmental pollutants, to fill a gap in the characterization of plastic-related impacts in LCA.
Keywords Characterization factor· Ecotoxicity· Industrial ecology· LCA· Marine plastic· Plastic additives
1 Introduction
Plastic, with a wide variety of forms and application fields,
has become an essential component of our daily lives. The
global plastics industry has been growing dramatically since
the beginning of massive plastic production in the 1950s
(Geyer etal. 2017). Meanwhile, poor waste management and
inappropriate human behavior have resulted in the ubiquity
and profusion of plastic debris (Barnes etal. 2009). Misman-
aged plastic waste can eventually end up in the marine envi-
ronment through multiple pathways, including atmospheric
and river transport (Lebreton etal. 2017), beach littering
(Bravo etal. 2009), and sea-based activities such as aqua-
culture and fishing (Bugoni etal. 2001). Plastic debris has
been observed on the world’s most remote islands and within
every marine habitat (STAP 2011; do Sul and Costa 2014).
It is estimated that 4.8–12.7 million metric tons of plastics
enter the ocean per annum, and this figure will continue
increasing sharply if there are no improvements in waste
management (Jambeck etal. 2015). As the growing amount
Communicated by Michael Z. Hauschild
* Rose Nangah Mankaa
rose.mankaa@inab.rwth-aachen.de
1 Institute ofSustainability inCivil Engineering,
RWTH Aachen University, Mies-van-der-Rohe-Str. 1,
52074Aachen, Germany
/ Published online: 21 April 2022
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
of plastic litter is causing serious pollution in terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems, there is universal agreement that this
issue needs to be addressed urgently (Koelmans etal. 2014).
Litter around the globe has been reported to affect over
3800 terrestrial, freshwater, and marine species (https://
litte rbase. awi. de/ inter action_ detail; Accessed: 20 January
2022). Specifically, the potential risks of plastic litter to
human health and the environment have drawn increasing
public attention in recent years (Koelmans etal. 2017). To
tackle these concerns, various regional and international
instruments and initiatives have been established, such as
the International Coastal Cleanup and the Plastic Leak Pro-
ject (Ocean Conservancy 2020; Quantis 2020). In the ocean
environment, the impact of plastic debris can be divided
into physical impacts (e.g., entanglement and ingestion)
(Gall and Thompson 2015), chemical impacts (caused by
the build-up or release of toxic substances) (Amec Foster
Wheeler 2017), and other impacts such as dispersal via raft-
ing and transport of alien species (SCBD 2016).
As regards the chemical impacts, plastic-associated
chemicals pose potential hazards to marine organisms and
can eventually affect human health through the food chain.
Plastic contains a great diversity of functional additives
incorporated during manufacture, such as antioxidants, sta-
bilizers, and plasticizers (Hermabessiere etal. 2017). Plastic
can also adsorb persistent organic pollutants from the envi-
ronment (SCBD 2016). Wiesinger etal. (2021) established
a comprehensive database of chemical substances used in
plastic production based on an extensive review of indus-
trial, scientific, and regulatory sources. The database covers
over 10,000 substances, of which more than 2400 were iden-
tified as substances of potential concern. Recent studies have
indicated that plastic additives may have significant toxicity
impacts on aquatic species (Beiras etal. 2020; Capolupo
etal. 2020).
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a sustainability assess-
ment methodology commonly used by decision-makers for
quantifying the environmental impact of human activities
(Woods etal. 2018). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA),
the third phase of LCA, links inventory data with specific
impact categories and indicators with the aim of under-
standing the significance of the environmental impact
throughout a product’s life cycle (ISO 14040 2006). As
stated in the Medellin Declaration, the impact of marine
plastic is not adequately addressed in the LCA methodol-
ogy (Sonnemann and Valdivia 2017). Hence, there is an
urgent need for LCA-compliant impact assessment models
and characterization factors. The LCA community also rec-
ommends the development of species sensitivity distribu-
tion (SSD)-based models and metrics that can be used in
LCIA (Woods etal. 2019). In the next sections, we first
summarize the existing research on the impact assessment
of marine plastic within LCA. Afterwards, we introduce the
data collection and the EF calculation in detail. Finally, we
discuss how the results of this work can make a contribution
in practical contexts and put forward recommendations for
further methodological development.
2 State oftheart
A number of recent LCA studies have considered the poten-
tial amount of plastic littered into the sea. In a comparative
LCA of carrier bags conducted in Spain, Civancik-Uslu etal.
(2019) introduced a novel indicator to evaluate the impact of
discarded waste in marine waters. Similarly, Stefanini etal.
(2020) evaluated the impact of empty bottle littering in the
Mediterranean Sea within an LCA study on pasteurized milk
bottles. Regarding the impact of marine plastic on biota,
Woods etal. (2019) proposed a preliminary EF approach for
quantifying the entanglement of marine species in macro-
plastic debris. Starting from this approach, McHardy (2019)
made significant improvements by developing region- and
taxon-specific SSD models to better link marine plastic
quantities to species entanglement rates. Saling etal. (2020)
developed a midpoint characterization model for assessing
the impact of microplastic ingestion by organisms.
Founded in 2019, the scientific working group MarILCA
(Marine Impacts in LCA) is actively supporting the devel-
opment of methodologies to incorporate marine impacts
in LCA, with a focus on marine plastic litter (Boulay etal.
2021). In the modeling framework proposed by the group
(Woods etal. 2021), the ecotoxicity of plastic-associated
chemicals will be assessed separately from the impacts
caused by the presence of polymers. In line with this frame-
work, Lavoie etal. (2021) developed EFs regarding the
physical impact (resulting from the intake by organisms) of
micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) in aquatic environments.
Data were acquired from experiments based on virgin poly-
mers (i.e., without consideration of additives). EFs were
derived for a common scenario (the ALL EF using all data
points), a best possible scenario (the BEST EF using almost
only chronic EC50s), and seven other subgroups according
to particle size, particle shape, and polymer type. Lavoie
etal. (2021) also highlighted the need for future ecotoxic
EFs that account for the impact of additives and the impact
of toxic substances adsorbed onto plastic debris.
One suitable option to address this research need is pre-
sented in USEtox, a scientific consensus model for charac-
terizing human- and ecotoxicological impacts of chemical
emissions (Rosenbaum etal. 2008). USEtox can be applied
in the context of LCA, and its main purpose is to compare
alternatives instead of calculating absolute risks (Fantke
etal. 2017). At midpoint level, a USEtox characterization
factor provides an estimate of the potentially affected frac-
tion of species (PAF) integrated over time and volume per
565The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
unit mass of a chemical released. The model results can be
further extended to determine endpoint effects expressed as
the potentially disappeared fraction of species (PDF), apply-
ing a translation factor of 0.5 (Jolliet etal. 2003). The SSD-
midpoint is HC50EC50 and it denotes the concentration at
which 50% of species are exposed above their EC50 values
(Fantke etal. 2017). In the current USEtox database (USE-
tox version 2.12, https:// usetox. org/), ecotoxicity EFs are
available for some additives (e.g., bisphenol A and dibutyl
phthalate). However, as USEtox EFs are derived using effect
data for freshwater species only, the toxicity impact of these
additives on marine biota is not considered.
The methodological review shows that some LCAs have
addressed marine littering impacts and attempts have been
made to quantify macroplastic entanglement and microplas-
tic ingestion within LCIA. However, the toxicity of plastic-
related chemicals to biota is not yet considered in any impact
assessment methods associated with marine plastic. Inspired
by Lavoie etal. (2021), this study focuses on the ecotoxicity
of plastic additives and aims to reflect the environmental
significance of these substances. Results of recent aquatic
ecotoxicity tests were collected for a subsequent additive-
specific EF development.
3 Methods
3.1 Data acquisition
A literature search was conducted to collect relevant data
on the toxicity effect of plastic additives on aquatic species.
Information was acquired from the search engines Science-
Direct, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. Relevant pub-
lications were identified from peer-reviewed journals using
groups of keywords combining “plastic additives,” “plas-
tic chemicals” with “ecotoxicity,” “toxicity,” “impact,” or
“effect.” Moreover, articles mentioned in these publications
were further analyzed if they provided useful test results.
Data were collected applying the following selection criteria:
Ecotoxicity tests conducted in recent years (2016–2021)
Ecotoxicity tests with detailed information on experimen-
tal conditions
Ecotoxicity tests with quantitative results such as EC50s
and NOECs
Ecotoxicity tests focusing on one specific plastic additive
Recent ecotoxicological studies were considered if they
provide detailed information on the experimental context
and quantitative outcomes for the EF calculation. However,
many existing studies assessed the combined effect of addi-
tives and polymers or focused on leachates containing vari-
ous chemicals. These studies were not considered because
their results are not suitable for this additive-specific EF
development. Moreover, when a study contained informa-
tion on multiple additives, species, or test endpoints, each
combination was considered as a separate input value. All
extracted data points were compiled into a separate Excel
file, and a further data quality assessment was carried out
during the EF calculation. Consequently, some effect data
were eliminated, and the EFs for certain additives were
considered as unsatisfactory outcomes (see “Sect.4.2” for
details).
3.2 Data analysis andprocessing
The collected data points were classified according to the
additive, species, test endpoint, and exposure duration. The
exposure type of each input value was identified based on the
USEtox approach, and the identification was distinguished
between vertebrates, invertebrates, and algae (Table1).
As the main goal of this study is to assess the ecotoxicity
of additives in line with the approach applied for virgin MNP
particles in Lavoie etal. (2021), the USEtox approach was
adopted as the basis for the EF development. The underly-
ing data for “USEtox recommended” characterization factors
must cover at least three trophic levels, normally represented
by algae, crustaceans, and fish (Fantke etal. 2017). Accord-
ing to this requirement, sufficient ecotoxicity data are avail-
able for eight additives in the database (Table2). The CAS
Registry Number and major function of each additive, as
well as information on compatible polymers sourced from
Wiesinger etal. (2021), are also provided in the table for
easier orientation.
In the USEtox approach, an acute-to-chronic ratio is
used to extrapolate chronic values from acute data. Simi-
larly, two types of extrapolation factors were applied in this
study, converting acute EC50s to chronic EC50s, chronic
NOECs to chronic EC50s, respectively (Table3). These
were extracted from a recent study, which provided a set
of robust extrapolation factors for different species groups
(Aurisano etal. 2019). The extrapolation factors for fish
were applied for amphibians, and sub-chronic values were
considered chronic. After the extrapolation of data, all EC50
values were converted into a standard unit of mg/L. For
reported values expressed in molar concentration (μM), the
Table 1 Criteria for the classification of ecotoxicological tests as acute,
sub-chronic, or chronic (Fantke etal. 2017)
Group Acute Sub-chronic Chronic
Vertebrates < 7days ≥ 7days; < 32days ≥ 32days
Invertebrates < 7days ≥ 7days; < 21days ≥ 21days
Algae < 3days - ≥ 3days
566 The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
molecular weight of the corresponding additives was used
for the conversion.
3.3 Effect factor calculation
The USEtox approach was adopted for the EF calculation as
follows (Eqs.1 and 2):
with
EF Ecotoxicological effect factors for aquatic eco-
systems [PAF·m3·kg−1]
HC50EC50 Geometric mean of chronic EC50s [kg·m−3]
EC50,i Concentration at which 50% of the test organ-
isms of species i are affected [mg·L−1]
When a species is represented by more than one data
point, the EC50,i value for that species equals the geomet-
ric mean of all available EC50s. Apart from the additive-
specific EFs, a generic EF was derived based on all data
points without exclusion of any value. The idea behind this
EF is to gain an insight into the environmental significance
(1)
EF
=
0.5
HC50
EC50
(2)
log
10HC50EC 50 =1
n×
n
i=1log10
(EC
50,i
1000
)
of plastic additives. In addition, an SSD was generated for
this EF to provide information on the species and phyla rep-
resented in the compiled data. Regarding additive-specific
EFs, SSDs were generated solely for bisphenol A and dibu-
tyl phthalate due to the limited number of species (no more
than five) represented for other additives. The “ssdtools”
package in R, proposed by Thorley and Schwarz (2018),
was applied to plot the SSDs based on a log-normal dis-
tribution. In addition, uncertainty is given with the 95%
confidence interval (CI) of each EF, and the 95% CI calcu-
lation was done on HC50EC50 values using the R package
“DescTools”.
4 Results anddiscussion
4.1 Compiled data
Data for the EF development were obtained from 23 peer-
reviewed journal articles. Our database covers 27 additives
in total and contains detailed information on the experi-
mental condition of each data point (see TableS1 in Online
Resource). In summary, a total of 95 data points were
extracted from ecotoxicity tests on 21 aquatic species (14
freshwater and 7 marine) (Fig.1).
4.2 Effect factors
The SSD for the generic EF is presented here for quick visu-
alization of the gathered data (Fig.2). The generic EF is
represented by 21 species from 9 phyla. For those species
represented by several input values, the converted EC50s
may have a wide range. The dots representing each species
in Fig.2 refer to the corresponding EC50,i values.
Additive-specific EFs were initially calculated for eight
additives, but 4-nonylphenol and benzophenone-1were
excluded because of poor data quality from a statistical per-
spective. There is a huge disparity in the EC50,i values for
4-nonylphenol (see TableS4 in Online Resource), and the
EF for benzophenone-1has an excessively wide 95% CI
range (see TableS5 in Online Resource). Of all additives
Table 2 Additives investigated Additive CAS number Major function Compatible polymers
4-Nonylphenol 104-40-5 Stabilizer PET, PP, PUR, PVC
Benzophenone-1 131-56-6 Stabilizer PA, LDPE, HDPE, PET, PP, PS, PVC
Bisphenol A 80-05-7 Plasticizer LDPE, PA, PC, PUR, PVC
Bisphenol AF 1478-61-1 Plasticizer PA, PE, PC
Bisphenol F 620-92-8 Plasticizer Epoxy resin, PC
Dibutyl phthalate 84-74-2 Plasticizer LDPE, HDPE, PA, PET, PP, PS, PUR, PVC
Nonylphenol 25154-52-3 Antioxidant PA, PUR, PVC
Triclosan 3380-34-5 Biocide PE, PA, PC, PET, PP, PS, PUR, PVC
Table 3 Extrapolation factors and 95% confidence interval (CI) ranges
per species group (Aurisano etal. 2019)
Extrapolation between
endpoints Species group Extrapolation
factor (95% CI)
To EC50chronic from EC50acute Fish 1.71 (1.13–2.58)
Invertebrates 3.14 (2.20–4.48)
Algae and bacteria 1.14 (0.57–2.29)
To EC50chronic from
NOECchronic
Fish 0.31 (0.20–0.47)
Invertebrates 0.36 (0.30–0.44)
Algae and bacteria 0.18 (0.16–0.20)
567The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
considered (Table4), triclosan has the highest EF with over
3000 PAF·m3·kg−1. This result is in line with the study of
Beiras etal. (2020), which defines triclosan as a “very toxic”
functional additive. In contrast, EFs for bisphenol A and bis-
phenol F are under 100 PAF·m3·kg−1, suggesting comparably
lower levels of ecotoxicity effect on biota. Such ranking can
eventually help the plastics industry in the choice of addi-
tives that are least harmful or innocuous to aquatic life. For
instance, it would be better to reduce the use of triclosan in
the plastics industry by finding less toxic alternatives.
Fig. 1 Summary of acquired
ecotoxicity data from scientific
literature. Data used to create
these charts can be found in
Online Resource (TableS2) 61
23
11 Descriptor
EC50 (64.2%)
LC50 (24.2%)
NOEC (11.6%) 66
29 Exposure
Acute (69.5%)
Chronic (30.5%)
11
18
36
6
5
14
5
Category
Alkylphenols (11.6%)
Benzophenones (18.9%)
Bisphenols (37.9%)
Chlorinated phenols (6.3%)
Citrate esters (5.3%)
Phthalates (14.7%)
Rest (5.3%)
Fig. 2 Species sensitivity
distribution (SSD) for the
generic EF. Each dot represents
an EC50,i for a single species.
SSDs for bisphenol A and
dibutyl phthalate can be found
in Online Resource (Fig.S1).
Underlying data used to gener-
ate the SSDs can be found in
Online Resource (TableS3)
A. clausi
A. salina
A. tonsa
C. pyrenoidosa
Cyclotella sp.
D. magna
D. rerio
D. subspicatus
H. australis
K. brevis
M. macrocopa
P. hypophthalmus
P. lividus
P. lucida
P. vivipara
R. subcapitata
S. caliendrum
S. obliquus
T. japonicus
V.fischeri
X. laevis
HC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/LHC50 = 1.54 mg/L
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0.001 0.01 0.1 110 100 1,000
Additive concentration (mg/L)
Potentially affected fraction of species
Phylum
Arthropoda
Chlorophyta
Chordata
Cnidaria
Echinoder
mata
Mollusca
Myzozoa
Ochrophyta
Proteobacteria
568 The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
As mentioned above, Lavoie etal. (2021) derived the
BEST EF (72.90 PAF·m3·kg−1) and the ALL EF (82.28
PAF·m3·kg−1) to quantify the toxicity impact of MNPs on
aquatic biota from a holistic viewpoint. Likewise, a generic
EF was generated in this study (about 320 PAF·m3·kg−1)
(see TableS6 in Online Resource). Direct comparison of
EFs derived in different studies is not appropriate due to the
differences in research focus, data sources, and extrapola-
tion factors used. However, since plastic additives were not
considered in Lavoie etal. (2021), the generic EF developed
in this preliminary work suggests that additives can be more
toxic than pure polymers and thus deserve serious considera-
tion within the impact assessment of marine MNPs.
4.3 Limitations oftheapproach
This study is a first attempt to quantify the toxicity impact
of plastic additives in the marine environment, for which
a systematic assessment is currently missing in the LCIA
toolbox. However, the proposed EF approach is still at an
early stage, and there are several factors that have to be con-
sidered alongside the results. Firstly, due to a general lack of
effect data, ecotoxicity data for freshwater species were also
included to calculate the EFs. Secondly, as shown in Fig.1,
the majority of the compiled data are acute values which
need to be extrapolated, and the calculation of 95% CIs did
not consider the proportion of extrapolated values. Finally,
as the compiled data come from diverse sources, uncertainty
can arise from differences in toxicity test methods, exposure
concentrations, etc.
To close the gap in the underlying data of this EF devel-
opment, future ecotoxicological studies are needed to
provide data for more marine species as well as for other
commonly used plastic additives. Chronic toxicity data are
particularly in demand, so that the calculated EFs can rely
less on extrapolated values. More consistent, standardized
chronic data could also enable the dots representing each
species to fit better in the SSDs generated for the generic EF
and for individual additives.
Regarding the calculation of the generic EF, an important
limitation lies in the fact that the mass of additives released
into the marine compartment was not included, which is
essential for a better understanding of the environmental sig-
nificance of these pollutants. This aspect was not considered
herein owing to a lack of relevant information, especially
from industrial data sources. Further research might explore
how to assign weight factors to different additives by inves-
tigating their amount and leaching behavior. It is also worth
noting that the additive-specific EFs, calculated based on the
USEtox approach, can be used for comparative purposes but
not for describing absolute toxicity risks.
4.4 Suggestions fortheway forward
The outcome of this study contributes to the impact assess-
ment of marine MNPs. The impact of virgin polymers has
been addressed by Lavoie etal. (2021), and this study goes
one step further by including the impact of plastic additives.
Future studies should attempt to quantify the impact of marine
MNPs as a vector for environmental contaminants as well as
for invasive species. To complete the impact characterization
of MNPs, we also need fate factors and exposure factors for
polymers and associated chemicals. In this respect, Saling
etal. (2020) proposed a fate model focusing on the fragmen-
tation and degradation process of microplastics in the marine
environment. The USEtox model contains fate and eco-expo-
sure factors for five of the eight additives investigated here
(4-nonylphenol, bisphenol A, dibutyl phthalate, nonylphenol,
and triclosan), quantifying their dispersion in various environ-
mental compartments (air, soil, freshwater, and marine) and
their dissolved fraction in freshwater respectively. At present,
some researchers from MarILCA are working on the develop-
ment of fate and exposure factors for MNPs.
One major challenge identified for further research is the
interactive effect between polymers and additives. This phe-
nomenon has been proven by recent studies. Li etal. (2020)
observed antagonistic toxicity effects between polystyrene
microplastics and dibutyl phthalate on the marine copepod
T. japonicus for both acute and chronic reproduction tests.
Conversely, polyethylene fragments and benzophenone-3
exhibited synergistic effects on both lethal and sublethal
toxicity to the freshwater crustacean D. magna (Na etal.
2021). As regards the pollutants adsorbed from the environ-
ment, Bellas and Gil (2020) demonstrated that the presence
Table 4 Calculated effect
factors (EFs) with 95% CI
ranges and associated HC50s
Additive HC50EC50 [kg·m−3]EF [PAF·m3·kg−1] 95% CI ranges
Bisphenol A 8.82E-03 56.71 (22.17–145.06)
Bisphenol AF 1.48E-03 338.05 (73.49–1555.04)
Bisphenol F 1.53E-02 32.78 (7.36–145.97)
Dibutyl phthalate 4.36E-03 114.70 (27.95–470.70)
Nonylphenol 3.51E-03 142.49 (13.94–1456.74)
Triclosan 1.57E-04 3188.80 (687.02–14,800.75)
The generic EF 1.54E-03 324.61 (100.83–1045.05)
569The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
of polyethylene microplastics increased the toxicity of chlor-
pyrifos to the marine copepod A. tonsa. Similarly, the pres-
ence of polystyrene particles led to increasing toxicity of
triphenyltin chloride to the freshwater algae C. pyrenoidosa
(Yi etal. 2019). The mechanisms of such interactions are
differing and still less understood. Comprehensive analy-
sis and cautious interpretation are essential in defining the
combined ecotoxicity of polymers and associated chemicals,
since there are often discrepancies between calculated and
measured values when it comes to the ecotoxicity of mix-
tures (Gade etal. 2012).
The harmonization of different assessment methods
is of vital importance to ensure their comparability and
soundness. Toxicity effects of MNPs on biota are affected
by various parameters such as particle size, particle shape,
and polymer type (Miloloža etal. 2021). Regarding this
issue, Koelmans etal. (2020) made a great start by devel-
oping rescaling methods to improve the alignment of
approaches adopted in microplastic research, correcting
for differences in particle size range, concentration unit,
and threshold effect data used in SSDs. To avoid potential
double-counting of marine plastic impacts in LCIA, it is
necessary to have a meaningful combination of methods
that focus on different size classes (e.g., macro, micro, and
nano), particle shapes (e.g., pellets, beads, and films), and
impact pathways (e.g., entanglement, ingestion, and ecotox-
icity). Further discussion is needed about whether such an
all-embracing impact assessment is necessary and sensible.
In other words, consensus building processes among model
developers, LCA practitioners and other stakeholders can
be foreseen. Although decisions may vary among differ-
ent products or processes, achieving an optimum balance
between complexity and simplicity would be beneficial.
5 Conclusions
Marine plastic is now a global issue of great concern, yet
its environmental impacts are not adequately addressed in
LCA. In recent years, attempts have been made to quantify
several specific impacts such as marine littering, entangle-
ment in macroplastics, and ingestion of microplastics. How-
ever, there is still a lack of quantification methods regard-
ing the toxicity of plastic-related chemicals to marine biota.
To fill this gap, the proposed EF approach brings together
recent ecotoxicity data to develop EFs for plastic additives.
Based on the USEtox methodology, EFs were derived for six
commonly used additives. While triclosan shows extremely
high toxicity to aquatic species, bisphenol A and bisphenol
F are considered less toxic. The generic EF shows that the
effect of additives is likely to be significant in the impact
assessment of marine MNPs and should thus be included.
This EF can be used together with the BEST EF proposed
by Lavoie etal. (2021) and a future ecotoxicity EF consid-
ering plastic particles as a vector for other adsorbed con-
taminants. Further ecotoxicity data are expected to expand
the coverage of plastic additives and marine species for this
EF approach. The interactive effect between polymers and
additives remains to be further explored. Additionally, col-
laborative research efforts are required for a comprehensive
impact characterization of marine plastic and its integration
into the LCA framework.
Supplementary information The online version contains supplemen-
tary material available at https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 022- 02046-9.
Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt
DEAL.
Data availability The datasets generated and analyzed during the cur-
rent study are available in the Supplementary Information.
Declarations
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.
References
Aurisano N, Albizzati PF, Hauschild M, Fantke P (2019) Extrapola-
tion factors for characterizing freshwater ecotoxicity effects.
Environ Toxicol Chem 38(11):2568–2582. https:// doi. org/ 10.
1002/ etc. 4564
Barnes DKA, Galgani F, Thompson RC, Barlaz MA (2009) Accu-
mulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environ-
ments. Philos Trans R Soc B 364(1526):1985–1998. https:// doi.
org/ 10. 1098/ rstb. 2008. 0205
Beiras R, Verdejo E, Campoy-López P, Vidal-Liñán L (2020)
Aquatic toxicity of chemically defined microplastics can be
explained by functional additives. J Hazard Mater 406:124338.
https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. jhazm at. 2020. 124338
Bellas J, Gil I (2020) Polyethylene microplastics increase the toxicity
of chlorpyrifos to the marine copepod Acartia tonsa. Environ
Pollut 260:114059. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. envpol. 2020. 114059
Boulay A-M, Verones F, Vázquez-Rowe I (2021) Marine plastics in
LCA: current status and MarILCA’s contributions. Int J Life Cycle
Assess 26:2105–2108. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 021- 01975-1
Bravo M, de los Ángeles Gallardo M, Luna-Jorquera G, Núñez P,
Vásquez N, Thiel M (2009) Anthropogenic debris on beaches in
570 The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
the SE Pacific (Chile): results from a national survey supported
by volunteers. Mar Pollut Bull 58(11):1718–1726. https:// doi. org/
10. 1016/j. marpo lbul. 2009. 06. 017
Bugoni L, Krause L, Petry MV (2001) Marine debris and human impacts
on sea turtles in Southern Brazil. Mar Pollut Bull 42(12):1330–
1334. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/ S0025- 326X(01) 00147-3
Capolupo M, Sørensen L, Jayasena KDR, Booth AM, Fabbri E (2020)
Chemical composition and ecotoxicity of plastic and car tire rub-
ber leachates to aquatic organisms. Water Res 169:115270. https://
doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. watres. 2019. 115270
Civancik-Uslu D, Puig R, Hauschild M, Fullana-i-Palmer P (2019)
Life cycle assessment of carrier bags and development of a litter-
ing indicator. Sci Total Environ 685:621–630. https:// doi. org/ 10.
1016/j. scito tenv. 2019. 05. 372
do Sul JAI, Costa MF, (2014) The present and future of microplastic
pollution in the marine environment. Environ Pollut 185:352–364.
https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. envpol. 2013. 10. 036
Fantke P, Bijster M, Guignard C, Hauschild M, Huijbregts M, Jolliet
O, Kounina A, Magaud V, Margni M, McKone TE, Posthuma L,
Rosenbaum RK, van de Meent D, van Zelm R (2017) USEto
2.0 Documentation (Version 1.1). https:// doi. org/ 10. 11581/ DTU:
00000 011
Gade AL, Heiaas H, Lillicrap A, Hylland K (2012) Ecotoxicity of paint
mixtures: comparison between measured and calculated toxicity. Sci
Total Environ 435–436:526–540. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. scito tenv.
2012. 07. 011
Gall SC, Thompson RC (2015) The impact of debris on marine life. Mar
Pollut Bull 92(1–2):170–179. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. marpo lbul.
2014. 12. 041
Geyer R, Jambeck JR, Law KL (2017) Production, use, and fate of all
plastics ever made. Sci Adv 3(7):e1700782. https:// doi. o rg/ 10. 1126/
sciadv. 17007 82
Hermabessiere L, Dehaut A, Paul-Pont I, Lacroix C, Jezequel R, Soudant
P, Duflos G (2017) Occurrence and effects of plastic additives on
marine environments and organisms: a review. Chemosphere
182:781–793. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. chemo sphere. 2017. 05. 096
ISO 14040 (2006) Environmental management - life cycle assessment
- principles and framework. International Organization for Stand-
ardization, Switzerland
Jambeck JR, Geyer R, Wilcox C, Siegler TR, Perryman M, Andrady A,
Narayan R, Law KL (2015) Plastic waste inputs from land into the
ocean. Science 347(6223):768–771. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1126/ scien ce.
12603 52
Jolliet O, Margni M, Charles R, Humbert S, Payet J, Rebitzer G,
Rosenbaum R (2003) IMPACT 2002+: a new life cycle impact
assessment methodology. Int J LCA 8(6):324–330. https:// doi.
org/ 10. 1007/ BF029 78505
Koelmans AA, Gouin T, Thompson R, Wallace N, Arthur C (2014) Plastics
in the marine environment. Environ Toxicol Chem 33(1):5–10. https://
doi. org/ 10. 1002/ etc. 2426
Koelmans AA, Besseling E, Foekema E, Kooi M, Mintenig S, Ossendorp
BC, Redondo-Hasselerharm PE, Verschoor A, van Wezel AP, Scheffer
M (2017) Risks of plastic debris: unravelling fact, opinion, perception,
and belief. Environ Sci Technol 51(20):11513–11519. https:// doi. org/
10. 1021/ acs. est. 7b022 19
Koelmans AA, Redondo-Hasselerharm PE, Mohamed Nor NH, Kooi M
(2020) Solving the nonalignment of methods and approaches used
in microplastic research to consistently characterize risk. Environ Sci
Technol 54(19):12307–12315. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1021/ acs. est. 0c029 82
Lavoie J, Boulay AM, Bulle C (2021) Aquatic micro- and nano-plastics in
life cycle assessment: development of an effect factor for the quan-
tification of their physical impact on biota. J Ind Ecol. https:// doi.
org/ 10. 1111/ jiec. 13140
Lebreton LCM, van der Zwet J, Damsteeg JW, Slat B, Andrady A, Reisser
J (2017) River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans. Nat Commun
8:15611. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1038/ ncomm s15611
Li Z, Zhou H, Liu Y, Zhan J, Li W, Yang K, Yi X (2020) Acute and
chronic combined effect of polystyrene microplastics and dibutyl
phthalate on the marine copepod Tigriopus japonicus. Chemosphere
261:127711. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. chemo sphere. 2020. 127711
McHardy CL (2019) Linking marine plastic debris quantities to entangle-
ment rates: development of a life cycle impact assessment effect fac-
tor based on species sensitivity. Dissertation, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology
Miloloža M, Kučić Grgić D, Bolanča T, Ukić Š, Cvetnić M, Ocelić
Bulatović V, Dionysiou DD, Kušić H (2021) Ecotoxicological
assessment of microplastics in freshwater sources—a review. Water
13(1):56. https:// doi. org/ 10. 3390/ w1301 0056
Na J, Song J, Achar JC, Jung J (2021) Synergistic effect of microplastic
fragments and benzophenone-3 additives on lethal and sublethal
Daphnia magna toxicity. J Hazard Mater 402:123845. https:// doi.
org/ 10. 1016/j. jhazm at. 2020. 123845
Ocean Conservancy (2020) Together, we are team ocean. International
Coastal Cleanup 2020 Report, Washington, DC
Quantis (2020) Plastic leak project: Methodological Guidelines. https://
quant is- intl. com/ report/ the- plast ic- leak- proje ct- guide lines/
Rosenbaum RK, Bachmann TM, Gold LS, Huijbregts MAJ, Jolliet O,
Juraske R, Koehler A, Larsen HF, MacLeod M, Margni M, McKone
TE, Payet J, Schuhmacher M, van de Meent D, Hauschild MZ (2008)
USEtox - the UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended charac-
terisation factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in
life cycle impact assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 13(7):532–546.
https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 008- 0038-4
Saling P, Gyuzeleva L, Wittstock K, Wessolowski V, Griesshammer R
(2020) Life cycle impact assessment of microplastics as one compo-
nent of marine plastic debris. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25(10):2008–
2026. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 020- 01802-z
SCBD (2016) Marine debris: understanding, preventing and mitigating
the significant adverse impacts on marine and coastal biodiversity.
Technical Series No.83, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, Montreal
Sonnemann G, Valdivia S (2017) Medellin declaration on marine litter
in life cycle assessment and management. Int J Life Cycle Assess
22(10):1637–1639. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 017- 1382-z
STAP (2011) Marine debris as a global environmental problem: introduc-
ing a solutions based framework focused on plastic. A STAP Infor-
mation Document, Global Environment Facility, Washington, DC
Stefanini R, Borghesi G, Ronzano A, Vignali G (2020) Plastic or glass:
a new environmental assessment with a marine litter indicator for
the comparison of pasteurized milk bottles. Int J Life Cycle Assess
26(4):767–784. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 020- 01804-x
Thorley J, Schwarz C (2018) ssdtools: an R package to fit species sensitiv-
ity distributions. J Open Source Softw 3(31):1082. https:// doi. org/
10. 21105/ joss. 01082
Wheeler AF (2017) Intentionally added microplastics in products. Final
report, European Commission (DG Environment)
Wiesinger H, Wang Z, Hellweg S (2021) Deep dive into plastic
monomers, additives, and processing aids. Environ Sci Technol
55(13):9339–9351. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1021/ acs. est. 1c009 76
Woods JS, Damiani M, Fantke P, Henderson AD, Johnston JM, Bare
J, Sala S, de Souza DM, Pfister S, Posthuma L, Rosenbaum RK,
Verones F (2018) Ecosystem quality in LCIA: status quo, harmoni-
zation, and suggestions for the way forward. Int J Life Cycle Assess
23(10):1995–2006. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11367- 017- 1422-8
Woods JS, Rødder G, Verones F (2019) An effect factor approach for
quantifying the entanglement impact on marine species of macro-
plastic debris within life cycle impact assessment. Ecol Ind 99:61–
66. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j. ecoli nd. 2018. 12. 018
Woods JS, Verones F, Jolliet O, Vázquez-Rowe I, Boulay AM (2021) A
framework for the assessment of marine litter impacts in life cycle
impact assessment. Ecol Ind 129:107918. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1016/j.
ecoli nd. 2021. 107918
571The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Yi X, Chi T, Li Z, Wang J, Yu M, Wu M, Zhou H (2019) Combined effect
of polystyrene plastics and triphenyltin chloride on the green algae
Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(15):15011–15018.
https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11356- 019- 04865-0
Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
572 The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2022) 27:564–572
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Terms and Conditions
Springer Nature journal content, brought to you courtesy of Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH (“Springer Nature”).
Springer Nature supports a reasonable amount of sharing of research papers by authors, subscribers and authorised users (“Users”), for small-
scale personal, non-commercial use provided that all copyright, trade and service marks and other proprietary notices are maintained. By
accessing, sharing, receiving or otherwise using the Springer Nature journal content you agree to these terms of use (“Terms”). For these
purposes, Springer Nature considers academic use (by researchers and students) to be non-commercial.
These Terms are supplementary and will apply in addition to any applicable website terms and conditions, a relevant site licence or a personal
subscription. These Terms will prevail over any conflict or ambiguity with regards to the relevant terms, a site licence or a personal subscription
(to the extent of the conflict or ambiguity only). For Creative Commons-licensed articles, the terms of the Creative Commons license used will
apply.
We collect and use personal data to provide access to the Springer Nature journal content. We may also use these personal data internally within
ResearchGate and Springer Nature and as agreed share it, in an anonymised way, for purposes of tracking, analysis and reporting. We will not
otherwise disclose your personal data outside the ResearchGate or the Springer Nature group of companies unless we have your permission as
detailed in the Privacy Policy.
While Users may use the Springer Nature journal content for small scale, personal non-commercial use, it is important to note that Users may
not:
use such content for the purpose of providing other users with access on a regular or large scale basis or as a means to circumvent access
control;
use such content where to do so would be considered a criminal or statutory offence in any jurisdiction, or gives rise to civil liability, or is
otherwise unlawful;
falsely or misleadingly imply or suggest endorsement, approval , sponsorship, or association unless explicitly agreed to by Springer Nature in
writing;
use bots or other automated methods to access the content or redirect messages
override any security feature or exclusionary protocol; or
share the content in order to create substitute for Springer Nature products or services or a systematic database of Springer Nature journal
content.
In line with the restriction against commercial use, Springer Nature does not permit the creation of a product or service that creates revenue,
royalties, rent or income from our content or its inclusion as part of a paid for service or for other commercial gain. Springer Nature journal
content cannot be used for inter-library loans and librarians may not upload Springer Nature journal content on a large scale into their, or any
other, institutional repository.
These terms of use are reviewed regularly and may be amended at any time. Springer Nature is not obligated to publish any information or
content on this website and may remove it or features or functionality at our sole discretion, at any time with or without notice. Springer Nature
may revoke this licence to you at any time and remove access to any copies of the Springer Nature journal content which have been saved.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Springer Nature makes no warranties, representations or guarantees to Users, either express or implied
with respect to the Springer nature journal content and all parties disclaim and waive any implied warranties or warranties imposed by law,
including merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
Please note that these rights do not automatically extend to content, data or other material published by Springer Nature that may be licensed
from third parties.
If you would like to use or distribute our Springer Nature journal content to a wider audience or on a regular basis or in any other manner not
expressly permitted by these Terms, please contact Springer Nature at
onlineservice@springernature.com
... For physical effects of microplastic (with the EF from Lavoie et al., 2021) the XF is equal to 1 as it is assumed that the total amount of MNP reaching an aquatic environment is available to organisms. If considering the inclusion of toxic effects of chemical additives, the bioavailability of the relevant toxic chemical would need to be considered to modify the XF accordingly as done in Tang et al. (2022). ...
Article
Full-text available
Ongoing efforts focus on quantifying plastic pollution and describing and estimating the related magnitude of exposure and impacts on human and environmental health. Data gathered during such work usually follows a receptor perspective. However, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) represents an emitter perspective. This study examines existing data gathering and reporting approaches for field and laboratory studies on micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) exposure and effects relevant to LCA data inputs. The outcomes indicate that receptor perspective approaches do not typically provide suitable or sufficiently harmonised data. Improved design is needed in the sampling, testing and recording of results using harmonised, validated and comparable methods, with more comprehensive reporting of relevant data. We propose a three-level set of requirements for data recording and reporting to increase the potential for LCA studies and models to utilise data gathered in receptor-oriented studies. We show for which purpose such data can be used as inputs to LCA, particularly in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. Implementing these requirements will facilitate proper integration of the potential environmental impacts of plastic losses from human activity (e.g. litter) into LCA. Then, the impacts of plastic emissions can eventually be connected and compared with other environmental issues related to anthropogenic activities.
... For physical effects of microplastic (with the EF from Lavoie et al., 2021) the XF is equal to 1 as it is assumed that the total amount of MNP reaching an aquatic environment is available to organisms. If considering the inclusion of toxic effects of chemical additives, the bioavailability of the relevant toxic chemical would need to be considered to modify the XF accordingly as done in Tang et al. (2022). ...
Article
Full-text available
Plastic is a ubiquitous material that has caused major environmental impacts. Ecosystem damage from improperly disposed plastic waste is the most visible of these impacts; however, plastic also has less visible environmental impacts throughout its supply chain. At the same time, plastic is not unique in possessing severe, often invisible, environmental impacts that occur throughout its life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a helpful tool can be used to contextualize the environmental impacts of plastic compared with alternative solutions or material substitutes. LCA can broaden our understanding of the environmental impacts of a product beyond what is the most obvious and visible, taking a comprehensive view that encompasses raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use, and end-of-life. LCA can be used to target specific areas for improvement, understand and evaluate tradeoffs among different materials, and can be helpful to avoid environmental problem-shifting. This review provides an overview of the LCA process and describes the benefits and limitations of LCA methods as they pertain to plastic and plastic waste. This paper summarizes major trends that are observed in prior LCA studies, along with a discussion of how LCA can best be used to help resolve the plastics problem without causing other unintended issues. The life cycle perspective analyzes the environmental impact associated with a specific product, often comparing the environmental impacts of one alternative to another. An alternative perspective analyzes the aggregated environmental impacts of the entire plastic sector, analyzing the full scope and scale of plastics in the environment. Both perspectives provide meaningful data and insights, yet each provides an incomplete understanding of the plastics problem. The comparative LCA perspective and the aggregated environmental impact perspective can complement one another and lead to overall improved environmental outcomes when used in tandem. The discussion highlights that reduced consumption of the underlying need for plastic is the only way to ensure reduced environmental impacts, whereas interventions that promote material substitution and or incentivize shifts toward other kinds of consumption may result in unintended environmental consequences.
Article
Full-text available
A variety of chemical substances used in plastic production may be released throughout the entire life cycle of the plastic, posing risks to human health, the environment, and recycling systems. Only a limited number of these substances have been widely studied. We systematically investigate plastic monomers, additives, and processing aids on the global market based on a review of 63 industrial, scientific, and regulatory data sources. In total, we identify more than 10'000 relevant substances and categorize them based on substance types, use patterns, and hazard classifications wherever possible. Over 2'400 substances are identified as substances of potential concern as they meet one or more of the persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity criteria in the European Union. Many of these substances are hardly studied according to SciFinder (266 substances), are not adequately regulated in many parts of the world (1'327 substances), or are even approved for use in food-contact plastics in some jurisdictions (901 substances). Substantial information gaps exist in the public domain, particularly on substance properties and use patterns. To transition to a sustainable circular plastic economy that avoids the use of hazardous chemicals, concerted efforts by all stakeholders are needed, starting by increasing information accessibility.
Article
Full-text available
High living standards and a comfortable modern way of life are related to an increased usage of various plastic products, yielding eventually the generation of an increased amount of plastic debris in the environment. A special concern is on microplastics (MPs), recently classified as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). This review focuses on MPs’ adverse effects on the environment based on their bioactivity. Hence, the main topic covered is MPs’ ecotoxicity on various aquatic (micro)organisms such as bacteria, algae, daphnids, and fish. The cumulative toxic effects caused by MPs and adsorbed organic/inorganic pollutants are presented and critically discussed. Since MPs’ bioactivity, including ecotoxicity, is strongly influenced by their properties (e.g., types, size, shapes), the most common classification of MPs types present in freshwater are provided, along with their main characteristics. The review includes also the sources of MPs discharge in the environment and the currently available characterization methods for monitoring MPs, including identification and quantification, to obtain a broader insight into the complex problem caused by the presence of MPs in the environment.
Article
Full-text available
The lack of standard approaches in microplastic research limits progress in the abatement of plastic pollution. Here we propose and test rescaling methods that are able to improve the alignment of methods used in microplastic research. We describe a method to correct for the differences in size ranges as used by studies reporting microplastic concentrations, and demonstrate how this reduces the variation in aqueous phase concentrations caused by method differences. We provide a method to interchange between number, volume and mass concentrations using probability density functions that represent environmental microplastic. Finally, we use this method to correct for the incompatibility of data as used in current species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), caused by differences in the microplastic types used in effect studies and those in nature. We derived threshold effect concentrations from such a corrected SSD for freshwater species. Comparison of the rescaled exposure concentrations and threshold effect concentrations reveals the latter would be exceeded for 1.5% of the known surface water exposure concentrations worldwide. Altogether, this tool set allows us to correct for the diversity of microplastic, to address it in a common language, and to assess its risks as one environmental material.
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Today plastic is the most used material for food packaging, but its incorrect disposal is creating environmental issues to oceans, soil and air. Someone believes that the solution is to ban plastic and substitute it with glass packaging. Is it the right choice? This study aims at comparing the environmental impact of bottles made of PET, R-PET, non-returnable glass and returnable glass in order to understand which is the most environmental friendly packaging solution. Methods A literature analysis on the environmental impact of glass and PET bottles is carried out, taking into account their production, transport and disposal phase. Then, an environmental assessment of PET, R-PET, glass and returnable glass bottles, used to package 1 l of pasteurized milk, has been carried out using the life cycle assessment methodology and a new indicator. Inventory data were provided by an important milk processing and packaging factory located in Italy. Results were estimated using some relevant impact categories of the ReCiPe 2016 MidPoint (H) method, then a marine litter indicator (MLI) has been proposed in order to evaluate the polluting potential of milk bottles dispersed into the Mediterranean Sea. Results and discussion LCA results show that R-PET bottle gives the lowest contribution to global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, fossil resource scarcity, water consumption and human carcinogenic toxicity, followed by PET bottle, returnable glass bottle, and finally non-returnable glass bottle. Glass is the worst packaging option because of high energy demand in the bottle production and its weight and in the transport phase. Some improvements can be obtained with returnable glass, but even if we consider that a bottle could be reused eight times, results are not comparable to the PET or R-PET bottles used only once. However, according to the MLI, returnable glass bottles become the first option, because a lot of plastic bottles could potentially be dispersed into the sea. Conclusions The substitution of plastic with glass does not help to reduce the GWP and others LCI categories, while could contribute to reduce the marine litter: overall it is important to dispose correctly packaging materials, investing in recycling and reusing. In particular, great improvements can be obtained using bottles made with recycled materials, as R-PET. In conclusion, it is necessary to disadvantage waste dispersion, giving incentives to returnable packaging and raising people awareness of environmental problems.
Article
Full-text available
PurposePlastic pollution in marine environments is a severe problem in the world due to misuse and mismanagement of the materials. Microplastics are a specific form of pollutants in this context and its handling is very difficult due to its very small size of particulates. Currently, the impacts of marine plastic debris are not considered. However, this type of particulates can be assessed like other emissions with the systematic and quantifiable approach in life cycle assessment (LCA). It was our goal to find and test first methodological approaches for including impacts of marine litter of microplastics to LCA.Methods The Medellin Declaration on Marine Litter in Life Cycle Assessment and Management raised this issue in 2017 and called for LCA to address the challenges of marine litter. The present research paper focuses on how to integrate plastic debris impacts with focus on microplastics into LCA and gives a suggestion for an assessment approach. Based on a literature review, we considered various impacts to the marine environment of microplastics linked with their kinetics of the fragmentation and degradation. Subsequently, we developed a characterization LCA model for microplastics in the marine environment. We addressed therein the fate of microplastics and their specific eco-toxic effects to different organisms. We compared the impacts of different types of polymers as well and showed how these can be integrated in an assessment using the new characterization model.Results and discussionThe assessment of marine litter impacts in LCA was strongly dependent on the number of microplastic particles produced from the original litter over time. These impacts were derived from measurements of the number of microparticles, their densities in the marine environment and their impacts to different organisms. The new characterization model includes the relationship between fragmentation and degradation and can be used for impact assessments within LCA.Conclusion The question where we did not find a finally satisfying solution is the issue of the length of the time horizon of the assessment or the discounting. Those are regarded as subjective and are encountered with sensitivity or scenario analysis. Results from different time horizons can be aggregated to one figure or can be compared separately. Further investigations should be taken for a better understanding of this issue and for concrete solutions because their influence on the results of life cycle assessments is often fundamental.
Article
Purpose Marine litter, mostly plastics, is a growing environmental problem. Environmental decision makers are beginning to take actions and implement regulations that aim to reduce plastic use and waste mismanagement. Nevertheless, life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool commonly used to assist environmental decision making, does not yet allow for considering the consequences of plastic waste leaked into the environment. This limits the application of LCA as a tool for highlighting potential tradeoffs between impact categories and the relative significance of their contribution on a specific Areas of Protection (AoP). A coordinated research effort to cover various parts of the marine litter impact pathway is required to ultimately produce characterisation factors that can cover this research gap. Here, we design a consistent and comprehensive framework for modelling plastic litter impact pathways in LCIA models. This framework is to support such coordinated research progress towards the development of harmonized pathways to account for impacts of plastic litter, specifically to the marine environment. The framework includes an overview of life cycle inventory requirements (leakage to the environment; a focus of other research efforts), and a detailed description of possible marine litter impact pathways, modelling approaches and data(-type) requirements. We focus on marine plastic litter and consider the potential contribution of different impact pathways to overall damage in the main operational AoPs, as well as recently proposed ones. Results and conclusions The proposed framework links inventory data in terms of kg plastic leaked to a specified environmental compartment (air, terrestrial, freshwater, marine) to six AoPs: ecosystem quality, human health, socio-economic assets, ecosystem services, natural heritage and cultural heritage. The fate modelling step, which includes transportation, fragmentation and degradation processes, is common to all included impact pathways. Exposure and effect modelling steps differentiate between at least six exposure pathways, e.g. inhalation, ingestion, entanglement, invasive species rafting, accumulation, and smothering, that potentially compromise sensitive receptors, such as ecosystems, humans, and manmade structures. The framework includes both existing, e.g. human toxicity and ecotoxicity, and proposed new impact categories, e.g. physical effect on biota, and can be used as a basis for coordinating harmonized research efforts.
Article
Plastic litter of all sizes has been acknowledged as a serious threat to biodiversity, especially in the marine environment. The fact that life cycle assessment (LCA) does not properly consider these issues is a serious problem for the aspirations of LCA in the public sphere. This paper focuses on micro‐ and nano‐sized plastics (MNPs), which have the potential to cause a substantial impact on ecosystem quality because of their increased presence in the marine compartment and capacity to affect a greater range of species. The data regarding MNPs’ effect on different aquatic species were extracted from the academic literature. These data were then explored and analyzed to bring to light the possibilities in terms of effect factor (EF) developments and the existing relations between effect on aquatic ecosystems and different parameters such as particle size, polymer type, and shape. No significant difference could be observed between the effect of the different subgroups of MNPs tested when considering a single species. However, when including many species in the analysis, differences could be noted between polystyrene (PS) and other polymer types. The high uncertainty on the developed EFs combined with this lack of statistical difference among subgroups at the single species level suggest that the use of a single generic EF could be appropriate for now. This EF is provided along with Species Sensitivity Distributions developed to allow for a quick visualization of the gathered data used to generate the EFs. This EF can now be used to quantify the physical impact of all MNPs in life cycle impact assessment.
Article
The interactive effect of polyethylene microplastic (MP) fragments and benzophenone‐3 (BP-3) additives on Daphnia magna was assessed in the present study. The 48 h median effective concentration (EC50) revealed that MP fragments (37.24 ± 11.76 μm; 3.90 mg L⁻¹) were over 80 times more acutely toxic than polyethylene microbeads (37.05 ± 3.96 μm; 323 mg L⁻¹), possibly because of their irregular shape and high specific surface area. Moreover, the addition of BP-3 (10.27 ± 0.40 % w/w) to MP fragments (MP + BP-3) resulted in greater acute toxicity to D. magna (EC50 = 0.99 mg L⁻¹) compared to MP fragments (EC50 = 3.90 mg L⁻¹) or BP-3 (EC50 = 2.29 mg L⁻¹) alone. Additionally, MP + BP-3 exposure induced a synergistic increase in reactive oxygen species, total antioxidant capacity, and lipid peroxidation in D. magna. These synergistic effects can be attributed to enhanced bioconcentrations of BP-3 in D. magna caused by MP fragments. These findings suggest that MP fragments containing chemical additives represent a synergistic ecological risk and have the potential to harm aquatic organisms.
Article
A novel, systematic approach to relate plastic toxicity with chemical composition is undertaken. Using industrial methods, three petroleum-based polymers, low-density polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyamide (PA), and the biopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) were manufactured in different formularies including conventional and alternative additives, and microplastics of two sizes (<250 and <20 µm) were obtained with the aim to relate their composition with environmental impact in aquatic environments. Internationally accepted standard tests of regulatory use with marine organisms representative of microalgae (Tisochrysis lutea population growth), crustaceans (Acartia clausi larval survival), and echinoderms (Paracentrotus lividus sea-urchin embryo test) support the following conclusions. Aquatic toxicity of microplastics made from conventional oil-based polymers is due to leaching of chemical additives, and not to ingestion of microplastics. Use of alternative formulations based on natural rather than synthetic chemical additives did not consistently reduce aquatic toxicity except for the replacement of triclosan by the alternative biocide lawsone. In contrast, the biopolymer tested, PHB, seemed to impact marine plankton through different mechanisms associated to the higher abundance of plastic particles within the nanometric range found in this resin and absent in other materials.