Monetary impacts of plastic pollution on coastal recreational ecosystem services

Abstract

The importance of Ecosystem Services (ES) and the threats human activity pose to their supply have become a common topic of academic research. In the marine environment, the steady increase of plastic pollution now threatens to compromise the supply of important marine ES. While current life cycle assessment methods have started to account for some of the ES impacts of plastic, they still fail to account for effects on marine cultural ES. This thesis presents an attempt to fill this research gap through the development of Effect Factors that can be used in Life-Cycle Impact Assessment to estimate the monetary impact of marine plastic and debris on coastal tourism. Using data from Contingent Valuation Method studies and coastal clean-ups, several effect factors were developed that measure the monetary impact per kg of marine plastic and debris pollution. Two main effect factors were developed that can predict the monetary costs per kg marine plastic and debris for (1) a country or (2) for a smaller region. The monetary impacts are calculated using recreational value loss estimates and incurred cleaning costs. For the predicting of recreational value loss per kg of marine plastic and debris, the use of the Human Development Index was recommended. The effect factors that are presented in this thesis are the first step in the development of a Characterization Factor to be incorporated in Life-cycle Impact Assessment. In addition to the need for the development of a Fate Factor, new research using Contingent Valuation Method with a wider geographical range and more standardized results is needed to improve the robustness of the effect factors.