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Life cycle assessment of a European seaweed bioplastic sourced from Southeast Asia
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Burwood, VIC, Australia.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0221-6078
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Sustainable development, Environmental science and Engineering, Water and Environmental Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0354-7189
Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, SE 750 07, Sweden.
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Burwood, VIC, Australia; Biosciences and Food Technology Discipline, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
2026 (English)In: Environmental Research, ISSN 0013-9351, E-ISSN 1096-0953, Vol. 303, article id 124806Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Plastic pollution poses a significant global environmental challenge. Bioplastics, particularly those derived from sustainable seaweed aquaculture, present a promising opportunity to mitigate this issue. However, the environmental impacts of seaweed bioplastics are still largely unexamined. We conducted a ‘cradle-to-grave’ life cycle assessment (LCA) of a seaweed bioplastic using data from a British extruded bioplastic company. Seaweed was sourced and processed for polymer extraction initially in Indonesia, before being transported to the United Kingdom for final extrusion processing and sale. We used primary input data for the entire supply chain aside from end of life. We found that polymer extraction accounts for the majority of environmental impacts, contributing 74% of total emissions, where the entire footprint amounts to 7.8 kg CO2 eq per kg of extruded pellet. Seaweed farming, including carbon sequestration from biomass burial in sediments below the seaweed farm and excluding temporary biogenic carbon storage, contributed to just 3.6% of overall emissions. We compared impacts of the company bioplastic to polylactide (PLA) plastic which showed PLA had lower impacts, between 10 and 40%, in all impact categories except stratospheric ozone depletion. Nonetheless, we note that several of the positive environmental benefits of the seaweed bioplastic and the negative impacts of PLA for instance from plastic pollution are not captured in existing LCA data. In addition the company's bioplastic pellets are a novel product, while PLA production has benefited from decades of optimisation in large-scale industrial processes. To reduce the impacts across the full life cycle of the company, close collaboration with partners on the seaweed farming and extraction stages will be essential. Overall, seaweed bioplastics are an emerging sector with potential to reduce packaging environmental impacts as it scales up, and more LCAs will be needed to ensure optimized, low-impact processes as production ramps up in the coming years.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier BV , 2026. Vol. 303, article id 124806
Keywords [en]
Bioplastic, Carbon emissions, Lifecycle assessment, Seaweed, Seaweed aquaculture
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-383026DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2026.124806ISI: 001781271600001PubMedID: 42167511Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105039746645OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-383026DiVA, id: diva2:2070072
Note

QC 20260611

Available from: 2026-06-11 Created: 2026-06-11 Last updated: 2026-06-11Bibliographically approved

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Thomas, Jean-Baptiste

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