Practical steps to integrate life cycle thinking into alternative assessment
Current alternative assessment (AA) methods for chemicals have yet to be completed from the entire life cycle perspective. Conventionally, AA efforts compare chemical alternatives by examining toxicity, hazard, exposure, and physicochemical properties to meet an intended functional use of the chemic...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Sustainability Science and Technology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2977-3504/ade3df |
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| Summary: | Current alternative assessment (AA) methods for chemicals have yet to be completed from the entire life cycle perspective. Conventionally, AA efforts compare chemical alternatives by examining toxicity, hazard, exposure, and physicochemical properties to meet an intended functional use of the chemical of concern against a list of viable alternative options. However, this current methodology often does not cover the role of each proposed alternative chemical throughout its life cycle, leading to the possible exclusion of long-term sustainability considerations by limited views on burden shifting. This tutorial article describes the incorporation of life cycle thinking (LCT), such as raw material extraction, manufacturing, usage, and end-of-life management, to support more inclusive alternative chemical assessments. The LCT elements cover impacts derived from chemical lineage, supply chain dynamics, and process design, an improvement from conventional AA approaches, which often stop at assessing hazards and fulfilling functional use. This expanded approach also addresses the possible data gaps expected from each assessment step. Methodological gaps in current assessments can also be minimized by adding supply chain impact, sustainability, and hazard assessment across the life cycle. Therefore, this expanded methodology can be used to automate data acquisition to aid in assessing safer and more sustainable chemical alternatives. |
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| ISSN: | 2977-3504 |