Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental challenges of our time. Understanding not only how much plastic is used, but also how it may be released into the environment and what impacts it can cause, is essential for developing effective mitigation strategies.
Plastics used in fishing gear, packaging and seafood processing can be lost or released at different stages of the value chain, particularly when waste is not properly managed. These releases—including microplastics and lost or discarded fishing gear—can be transported across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments.
Within SMART4SEA, we are working to better integrate plastic leakage and marine litter into Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), linking plastic use, release pathways, environmental fate and potential impacts.
At the University of Cantabria, we are adapting existing methodologies to the Atlantic context to develop more robust and regionally relevant environmental indicators.
