European Life Cycle Database

Australia Canada sediment-resident invertebrate species, including at least 1 benthic amphipod At least 2 of these studies must be partial or full life-cycle tests with ecologically relevant endpoints. For derivation of a definitive EQS, must have at least 20 entries in the BEDS database European Union United States... 

In summary, the LCA studies show that, assuming current technological and energy use practices, PLA exhibits comparable nonrenewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions to PE and PET [27, 38]. The life cycle environmental impacts of petro-polymers are often taken from the European Association of Plastics Manufacturers (APME). The APME has an extensive database of LCl data for numerous polymers, including PE, PET, PP, and PS. 

The above points are not immediately evident when performing an LCA of bioplastics. In general, the life cycle-based comparison between novel and mature products does not take this basic difference into account. As remarked by European Bioplastics, projections for improvement should be made and included in LCA studies. Besides, new materials and products, such as bioplastics, are often closely scrutinised while many existing products on the shelf are far less thoroughly examined. Within their life cycle, bioplastics are often put under the microscope while the impact of, e.g., oil or gas production is often modelled using fewer details, for instance, using data from generic databases. 

The inventory analysis gathers the necessary data regarding the extraction of resources and emissions for all processes involved in the product life cyde. For this purpose, databases have been developed, such as Ecoinvent, the Chinese National Database, Spine (www.globalspine.com), JEMAI, and the European Reference life Cycle Data System, which give estimates about resource extraction and emissions... 

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