Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives
Plastic and microplastic contamination continue to be growing problems across the globe for both ecosystems and human health. Canada has banned single-use plastic products such as bags, cutlery, and foodservice ware (containers) to address and mitigate plastics and microplastic contamination. This s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-10-01
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| Series: | Microplastics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8929/3/4/38 |
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| author | Rebecca Goodrum Bibiana Bartokova Poritosh Roy |
| author_facet | Rebecca Goodrum Bibiana Bartokova Poritosh Roy |
| author_sort | Rebecca Goodrum |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Plastic and microplastic contamination continue to be growing problems across the globe for both ecosystems and human health. Canada has banned single-use plastic products such as bags, cutlery, and foodservice ware (containers) to address and mitigate plastics and microplastic contamination. This study evaluates the life cycle of banned plastic products and their alternatives to determine whether environmental impacts can be mitigated. The environmental impacts of bags (plastic, paper, cotton), cutlery (plastic, wooden, biodegradable), and containers (plastic, styrofoam, biodegradable) were determined considering both domestic and imported products. The bag study saw paper bags having the highest environmental impacts and cotton bags with the lowest due to their reusability. For the cutlery study, plastic cutlery was the most impactful across all categories except for eutrophication and ozone depletion, where biodegradable cutlery was the most impactful by 25% and 35%, respectively. In the case of foodservice ware (containers), styrofoam was found to be the least impactful. Similar to cutlery, the plastic containers had the greatest impact except where the biodegradable container contributed more to ozone depletion and eutrophication by 25% and 45%, respectively. Local production reduced impacts across all categories. Furthermore, on a local scale, biodegradable cutlery had a greater impact on the smog and respiratory effects categories than plastic by 10% and 30%, respectively. The results of this study indicate that future regulations should focus on promoting and educating consumers on the use of reusable products over single-use products, funding research to mitigate challenges associated with waste management, and consider an informed ban on all single-use products and not just those made of plastic material to mitigate environmental impacts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2ec6c69e836a4ead992a73dd7a24dd75 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-8929 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Microplastics |
| spelling | doaj-art-2ec6c69e836a4ead992a73dd7a24dd752024-12-27T14:41:56ZengMDPI AGMicroplastics2673-89292024-10-013461463310.3390/microplastics3040038Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their AlternativesRebecca Goodrum0Bibiana Bartokova1Poritosh Roy2School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, CanadaPlastic and microplastic contamination continue to be growing problems across the globe for both ecosystems and human health. Canada has banned single-use plastic products such as bags, cutlery, and foodservice ware (containers) to address and mitigate plastics and microplastic contamination. This study evaluates the life cycle of banned plastic products and their alternatives to determine whether environmental impacts can be mitigated. The environmental impacts of bags (plastic, paper, cotton), cutlery (plastic, wooden, biodegradable), and containers (plastic, styrofoam, biodegradable) were determined considering both domestic and imported products. The bag study saw paper bags having the highest environmental impacts and cotton bags with the lowest due to their reusability. For the cutlery study, plastic cutlery was the most impactful across all categories except for eutrophication and ozone depletion, where biodegradable cutlery was the most impactful by 25% and 35%, respectively. In the case of foodservice ware (containers), styrofoam was found to be the least impactful. Similar to cutlery, the plastic containers had the greatest impact except where the biodegradable container contributed more to ozone depletion and eutrophication by 25% and 45%, respectively. Local production reduced impacts across all categories. Furthermore, on a local scale, biodegradable cutlery had a greater impact on the smog and respiratory effects categories than plastic by 10% and 30%, respectively. The results of this study indicate that future regulations should focus on promoting and educating consumers on the use of reusable products over single-use products, funding research to mitigate challenges associated with waste management, and consider an informed ban on all single-use products and not just those made of plastic material to mitigate environmental impacts.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8929/3/4/38single-use plastic productsreusable productsdomestic productsimported productslife cycle assessmentenvironmental impacts |
| spellingShingle | Rebecca Goodrum Bibiana Bartokova Poritosh Roy Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives Microplastics single-use plastic products reusable products domestic products imported products life cycle assessment environmental impacts |
| title | Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives |
| title_full | Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives |
| title_fullStr | Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives |
| title_short | Life Cycle Assessment of Banned Single-Use Plastic Products and Their Alternatives |
| title_sort | life cycle assessment of banned single use plastic products and their alternatives |
| topic | single-use plastic products reusable products domestic products imported products life cycle assessment environmental impacts |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8929/3/4/38 |
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