SINTEF - ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF GEOTEXTILES
This report has been established by SINTEF (Norway) at the request of the European Association of Geosynthetic product Manufacturers (EAGM).
It presents a preliminary synthesis of the literature review of the main data published in important reliable publications on the different impacts of the use of geotextiles on the environment, positive and/or negative. The report aims impart general knowledge about and a background to the environmental impact of these products. The literature research was not performed as a systematic literature review, i.e., not all published articles in the field were assessed.
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Purpose & Scope
The report synthesises findings from 84 mainly post-2020 publications (mostly European) on the sustainability and environmental impacts of geotextiles. It examines geotextiles’ contributions to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), environmental and economic impacts, durability, degradability, and potential microplastic release. The review compares geotextile-based construction methods to conventional alternatives.
Parallel to the publications collected directly from the geosynthetics “community”, a literature search (based on https://www.sciencedirect.com/, Google Scholar, Litmaps or equivalent internet tools) allows a selection of the most relevant papers based on abstracts, before a complete analysis and study of the selected publications is performed. It covers the area of “geotextiles”, “sustainability”, “environmental performance (e.g. LCA)”, “degradability” and/or “microplastics”. The recent publications since 2020; and mainly from Europe have been considered.
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SINTEF has been responsible for the organisation, the work of literature review and the writing of this synthesis. To ensure the technical and scientific credibility of the content particular care has been taken on the sources of the publications and on their selection.
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To achieve this, SINTEF worked in coordination with an “Advisory group” for the collection, the selection of the publications and for review of and advice on the final report. The “Advisory group” consisted of 6 members: 3 members of the EAGM (Anne-Laure Backes, Henning Ehrenberg, Fabrizia Trovato) and 3 Experts from Universities and/or research bodies (Laetitia van Schoors / University Gustave Eiffel, Laurent Briançon / INSA Lyon, Philippe Delmas / SINTEF).
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Chapter 1 summary: Global overview of the environmental impact of geotextiles.