Life cycle inventory of plastics losses from seafood supply chains: Methodology and application to French fish products

Plastic debris into the environment is a growing threat for the ecosystems and human health. The seafood sector is particularly concerned because it generates plastic losses and can be endangered by plastic contamination. Life cycle assessment (LCA) does not properly consider plastic losses and related impacts, which is a problemin order to find relevant mitigation strategies without burden shifting. This work proposes a methodology for quantifying flows of plastics from the life cycle of the seafood products to the environment. It is based on loss rate and final release rate considering a pre-fate approach as proposed by the Plastic Leak Project. They are defined for 5 types of micro and macro plastic losses: lost fishing gears, marine coatings, plastic pellets, tire abrasion and plastic mismanaged at the end-of-life. The methodology is validatedwith a case study applied to French fish products for which relevant data are available in the Agribalyse 3.0 database. Results showthat average plastic losses are from 75 mg to 4345 mg per kg of fish at the consumer, depending on the species and the related fishing method. The main plastic losses come from lost fishing gears (macroplastics) and tire abrasion (microplastics). Results showhigh variability: when mismanaged, plastic packaging at the endof-life (macroplastics) is the main loss to the environment. As a next step the methodology is to be applied to other fish or shellfish products, or directly implemented in a life cycle inventory database. Further research should characterize the related impacts to the environment when life cycle impact assessment methodologieswill be available, and identify eco-design solutions to decrease the major flows to the environment identified. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The study proposes a methodology for quantifying plastic flows from the life cycle of seafood products to the environment and validates it using French fish products data. Results show that lost fishing gears and tire abrasion are the main sources of plastic losses, with mismanaged plastic packaging potentially causing significant environmental harm. Further research is needed to assess the related environmental impacts and identify eco-design solutions to reduce major plastic flows to the environment.