D6.7 Report on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the MAELSTROM automatic systems and marine litter processing technologies

This deliverable aims at presenting the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the technologies developed for ML removal and its recycling process, conducted based on the international ISO standards 14040 and 14044 (ISO14040, 2006; ISO14044, 2006). This deliverable is organized into the following sections: in the first section, it introduces the issue at hand and outlines the objectives of the deliverable. The second section offers a comprehensive description of all MAELSTROM project technologies that have been subject to environmental analysis. The third section details the methodological approach employed in these analyses. The fourth section presents a life cycle analysis, including all inventories provided by project partners, which encompass the inputs and outputs of the technologies throughout their life cycle. The fifth section focuses on the life cycle assessment, delineating the impact categories selected to evaluate the environmental performance of the MAELSTROM technologies. The sixth section provides the results of the analyses conducted using the tool SimaPro for LCA. Subsequently, the seventh section engages in an in-depth discussion of the inherent benefits of removing plastics from coastal ecosystems. Finally, the eighth section summarizes the conclusive findings of the study.