MDIP Project – Marine Debris Impacts of Plastics

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Why initiate the MDIP project?

WeLOOP launched the MDIP project (Marine Debris Impacts of Plastics) in 2020 to address the growing environmental issue of marine debris and its impact on marine ecosystems.

The project aims to address the limitations of the current LCA methodology by accurately quantifying the plastic waste released into the environment throughout the life cycle of a product, based on the development of an operational method.

Plastics, ubiquitous in our daily lives in various forms and uses, have become crucial, but they also pose an increasing threat to the environment. The oceans are particularly affected by plastic pollution.

A considerable amount of plastics are released into the oceans through various sources and channels, and over time, plastics can degrade and break down into smaller pieces. These plastic debris are classified as macroplastics (fragments larger than 5 mm) and microplastics (fragments smaller than 5 mm).

What are the current methodologies?

So far, different alternative approaches and numerous scientists have been studying plastic waste at the end of its life cycle and its impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity.

The gap in assessing plastic leakage within the framework of an LCA aims to be addressed by the methodological guidelines known as the Plastic Leak Project. These guidelines focus on an inventory of plastic emissions related to textiles (textile washing), transport (tyre abrasion), pellet pollution, and plastic products and packaging.

On the other hand, the impacts of plastics of different sizes (nano, micro, macro) in various environmental compartments (air, terrestrial, freshwater, and marine) are addressed by the CIRAIG using the MarILCA framework.

In addition, characterisation factors for the physical effects on biota were developed by Corella-Puertas et al. in 2022 for three different scenarios, including sedimentation, degradation, and fragmentation rates, for emissions of expanded polystyrene (EPS) microplastics and tyre and road wear particles (TRWP).

What new methodology are we proposing?

Although these methods allow for the assessment of potential characterisation factors by considering the fate, effects, and exposure factors of plastics in the marine environment, implementing an operational methodology using this approach could require significant development time. The unpredictability associated with the pathways of plastics in the marine environment remains a major uncertainty.

WeLOOP considers plastic leakage starting from its production, using a fate-factor approach. We assign responsibility for potential leakage to those who bring the product to market, thereby holding them accountable for the associated environmental impact.

The methodology

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How does this methodology work?

To ensure the proper functioning of this methodology, WeLOOP has developed a multi-criteria analysis using a set of parameters derived from the plastic value chain (Figure No. 1).

To differentiate macroplastics from microplastics, this analysis associates:

• the type of plastic (HDPE, PP, LDPE, PET, PS, PUR, PVC, EPS, PA6, PA66, PA11/12)
• its sector (packaging; construction and building; automotive; electrical and electronics; household, leisure and sports; agriculture; textiles)
• its size (> 5 mm or < 5 mm)

Pour l’inventaire et la caractérisation, il a été possible d’identifier des facteurs de caractérisation (FC) spécifiques à la taille du plastique. Chaque FC est influencé par différents paramètres qui interagissent entre eux pour déterminer l’impact global.

For example, for macroplastics, the use context plays an important role in the effectiveness of collection and treatment. In contrast, for microplastics, the release potential takes into account the probability of plastic loss during the use and maintenance of the product.

Regionalisation and standardisation steps have been introduced to improve the effectiveness of impact assessment, using plastic leakage values and total plastic consumption by country or region. Different types of polymers have been compared and analysed using this method to assess their respective impacts expressed in PET equivalents and to standardise the plastic footprint of the various polymers.

The integration of these factors into SimaPro, a Life Cycle Assessment software, is underway. So far, the implementation for the packaging sector has been completed.

What are the results?

WeLOOP has calculated 2310 characterisation factors (CF) for the 11 most commonly used polymers across 7 sectors and in 15 regions or countries.

We have implemented two new impact categories in SimaPro, called Plastic Leakage Potential for macroplastics and Plastic Leakage Potential for microplastics, alongside the existing modelling of the LCA impact.

We also conducted an LCA on various test cases involving the comparison of different types of packaging for milk and meat.

What's next?

The implementation of the 7 other sectors (construction and building; automotive; electrical and electronics; household, leisure and sports; agriculture; textiles) to quantify and test the impact of plastics at the company and product level, both food and non-food, is underway.

The development of a normalisation and weighting value is underway, which will allow the calculation of a single score for a product. This assessment will help us understand the environmental impacts of plastic losses throughout the different life cycle stages by linking with inventory data on plastic leakage in kilograms.

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