Life Cycle Inventory of Plastics Processing: Reference Data for the Industry

The quality of a life cycle assessment (LCA) depends, first and foremost, on the quality of the underlying inventory data. For the French plastics processing industry, forming and shaping processes had remained poorly documented in established reference databases, leaving manufacturers with little choice but to fall back on generic data that poorly reflected their actual production conditions.

IPC, the French Technical Centre for Plastics and Composites (sector-funded industrial research and technical support body), took the initiative to address this gap. EVEA supported the work on the methodological side of life cycle inventory (LCI) data collection across the industry, and contributed to drafting the publication report. The results are now available through the ADEME documentation library (ADEME: France's Agency for Ecological Transition, which maintains a publicly accessible library of environmental reference documents and datasets).

Methodological rigour, not just data collection

Building a sector-level LCI means adhering to a precise set of conventions: system boundary definition, allocation rules, co-product handling, and full transparency on modelling assumptions. Publication in a recognised reference library adds a further documentation requirement, one that determines whether the data will be accepted and reused by third parties.

Two aspects of EVEA's expertise proved particularly valuable here:

• The first was a a thorough familiarity with established reference databases, developed through prior technical document analysis. That working knowledge of modelling conventions and standard nomenclatures made it possible to position the new LCIs within a consistent reference framework, identify linkages with existing datasets efficiently, and avoid scope overlaps or definitional inconsistencies;
• The second was direct methodological experience drafting reports that meet the requirements of ISO 14040/14044, ensuring both the substance and the form held up to scrutiny.

Shared data infrastructure for the whole industry

An LCI is not an LCA. It is the data layer on which any impact assessment is built. Producing high-quality sector-level LCIs is therefore a contribution to shared infrastructure, one that will benefit engineering consultancies, manufacturers, and procuring organisations conducting LCAs on these processes.

A word on scope: these datasets address forming and shaping processes. They do not cover the plastic materials themselves, end-of-life scenarios, or company-specific logistics. A complete product LCA requires combining this sectoral data with site-level inputs. But where only approximations previously existed, there is now a reliable, documented starting point.

An ongoing advisory relationship

This project is not a one-off engagement. EVEA and IPC have worked together for several years, most notably on C3R'IMPACT®, an LCA tool developed specifically for plastics and composites manufacturers, built on the capabilities of EVEA's SaaS platform ASKOR. Drawing on the combined expertise of both organisations, it incorporates a dedicated database of plastic materials and processing data, enabling companies across the sector to carry out credible environmental assessments without requiring prior LCA expertise. The publication of these LCIs in the ADEME library directly strengthens that shared foundation.

Our thanks to IPC for the quality of this collaboration, and for the trust placed in us on this project and those before it.