🗑️Plastic Pollution

The basics

Plastic pollution refers to the accumulation of plastic materials in the environment, particularly in oceans, rivers, and landfills, where they harm ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. Since plastics are not biodegradable, they persist in the environment for centuries, breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which pose even more challenges.

The UP Scorecard therefore comprises a Plastic Pollution metric: a quantitative estimate of the mass of plastic that enters the environment due to the production, use, recycling, and disposal of the product.

Five stages considered in the UP Scorecard where plastic leaks into the environment to cause Plastic Pollution.

More details

Plastics are thrown away on a massive scale. They are durable materials that

do not biodegrade, and it can take hundreds of years to break down, partly into problematic microplastics. So when plastics end up in the environment, they are persistent polluters. They can be found in various ecosystems, from the bottom of the ocean to the top of mountains, and they are found in our bodies.

Plastic pollution in the Himalayas. Photo by Sylwia Bartyzel on Unsplash

Littered plastic items can alter the environment in many ways: they are a threat to marine ecosystems (ingestion by marine life, entanglement), they can release toxic chemicals in water and soil, they clog drains, etc.

For these reasons, plastic waste is a sustainability hot spot, and plastic pollution is measured and evaluated in LCAs. The Plastic Pollution metric measures how much plastic ends up in the environment, including land and water areas.

Having a plastic pollution metric in the UP Scorecard for food packaging and foodware is particularly relevant:

1. the vast majority of food packaging is made from plastics

2. the vast majority of plastic waste found on our shores comes from food packaging (see below)

Garbage collected on shores: positions 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are food contact articles (Ocean Conservancy, 2023)

Scoring

Indicator: g of plastic leakage to the environment

The Plastic Pollution metric estimates the amount of plastic that enters the environment. It includes plastic pollution to land and aquatic ecosystems. Leakage from the following five life cycle stages is estimated:

• Manufacturing and Transport: Small plastic pellets called "nurdles" can be lost during production and shipping.

• Supply Chain: Plastic can be lost when it is turned into products, like containers.

• Littering: Plastic can be discarded improperly before it is collected as trash. This is the biggest source of plastic pollution.

• Waste Management: Plastic can be lost during recycling and waste sorting processes.

• Export: Plastic can be lost when it is shipped overseas.

The UP Scorecard estimates leakage rates at each stage and reports the aggregate contribution to plastic pollution, in units of mass. Different plastic resins are assumed to leak at the same rate for a particular life cycle stage. As location-specific (e.g. state, county, or city) data representing litter rates and waste management practices become more available, the estimates of plastic leakage can be updated to account for these data. More details are provided in the detailed methodology under Life Cycle Model and Plastic Pollution.

The tool calculates the absolute value for plastic leakage in grams, and a normalized score from 1 to 100 (100 being the best score):

Indicator (grams of plastic leaked) and normalized score (from 0/worse to 100/best)

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Example scores

The graphic below shows the grams of plastic leaked calculated in the tool, for disposable food containers made of different materials, and a reusable plastic container. The graph illustrates the potential for plastic pollution of a reusable item, according to how many times it is reused.

Example results (g of plastic leakage per functional unit) for different plastic takeout containers. The more often a container is reused, the lower the overall plastic leakage is compared to single-use items.

Additional information

Methodology: Plastic Pollution

Life Cycle Model