Microplastics represent a pervasive and persistent source of pollution across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, raising growing environmental concerns. Yet, current Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods only partially account for their effects due to methodological gaps in modelling their environmental fate, impacts, and influence on ecosystem services such as the marine carbon cycle. This project aims to bridge these gaps by developing new methods to integrate the impacts of microplastics and cellulosic fibers into LCIA, for better decision making with regards to plastics and their alternatives.

The project aims at modelling the environmental fate of different types of microplastics and cellulosic microfibers across regions and ecosystems, to quantify their impacts on ecosystem quality. Further, the project also aims at quantifying their influence on the marine carbon cycle, and assess how microplastics could contribute to climate change impacts. By comparing and improving existing methods for evaluating damages on ecosystem quality, the project will improve the integration of microplastic impacts into Life Cycle Assessment and support decisions regarding plastics and their alternatives.