Life cycle assessment of brown-seaweed-based plastic

The production and end-of-life of fossil-based plastics threaten the environment. While some bio-based plastics are presented as a potential solution to avoid fossil-based plastics, these usually have a high impact on land-use change. Seaweed is compound of biopolymers potentially used to produce plastic. Moreover, seaweed cultivation has environmental benefits and does not need land resources to grow. This study uses alginate, a polymer in brown seaweed, to create a bio-based plastic. This analysis aims to assess the production and end-of-life of this bio-based plastic using a consequential life cycle assessment (LCA). Different scenarios will be analysed: Incineration, recycling and biodegrading the bio-based plastic. The preliminary results show the impacts of producing this bio-based plastic, without considering the CO2 uptake of seaweed cultivation and the end of life of the bio-based plastic. These preliminary results show that electricity is one of the highest impacts. The final results will include the CO2 uptake of seaweed cultivation in the sea and different end-of-life scenarios, maintaining the carbon balance.