European Bioplastics recently released a position paper on life cycle assessment (LCA) of bioplastics, outlining the opportunities and needs of this analytical tool. This paper addresses the careful and knowledgeable use of it and calls for the involvement of the industry. Topics like sustainable development, availability of fossil & natural resources, global climate change and waste reduction are dominating political & industrial agendas. Therefore, the relevance of the environmental performance of processes, products and services in decision-making is rapidly growing and LCA results are increasingly being considered as a key input.

Bioplastics are based on different raw materials, produced & processed using diverse technologies, tailored to various applications and recovered or disposed off through multiple waste management systems. Consequently, the results from LCAs are complex and do not allow simple conclusions. Hence projections for improvements can be made and should be included in LCA.