Room: Poster Area
Date: Thursday, 21 May 2026
Time: 16:15 - 17:15 CEST
Session code 6CV.7
Biopolymers and bioplastics
From Fossil to Biobased Plastics: System-Level Mapping of Material Flows and Assessing Sustainability in the Dutch Building & Construction Sector
Short Introductive summary
Plastics are essential in modern building practice, improving energy efficiency, durability, and design flexibility. Yet, their fossil origin and inadequate end-of-life management pose significant sustainability and circularity challenges. This study advances the Plastic System Assessment Framework (PSAF) and applies it to the Dutch building and construction (B&C) sector to systematically map plastic stocks and flows. A central innovation of the PSAF is its integration of material flow analysis (MFA) with environmental assessment, quantitatively linking material dynamics to impacts such as climate change and microplastic pollution. This integrated approach enables the identification of sustainability hotspots and the evaluation of intervention pathways—particularly the substitution of fossil-based plastics with biobased alternatives. By bridging circularity and environmental performance at a system level, the study provides new scientific evidence to guide a more sustainable, biobased plastics transition in the Netherlands.
Presenter
Heleen BALLEMANS
Wageningen Research, THE NETHERLANDS
Presenter's biography
Heleen is a researcher at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. She holds an MSc in Industrial Ecology, with a specialisation in environmental impact analysis (e.g., LCA, MFA). Heleen is highly motivated to bridge the gap between science and practice towards a sustainable society.
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
W. Post, Wageningen Research, THE NETHERLANDS
M. Brouwer, Wageningen Research, THE NETHERLANDS
Session reference: 6CV.7.13