Using life cycle assessment to achieve a circular economy

PEÑA, CLAUDIA; CIVIT, BÁRBARA; ALEJANDRO GALLEGO-SCHMID; ANGELA DRUCKMAN; ARMANDO CALDEIRA-PIRES; BO WEIDEMA; ERIC MIERAS; FENG WANG; JIM FAVA; LLORENC MILA I CANALS; MAURO CORDELLA; PETER ARBUCKLE; SONIA VALDIVIA; SOPHIE FALLAHA; WLADIMIR MOTTA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

Springer

Año: 2021

0948-3349

The current global interest in circular economy (CE) opens an opportunity to make society?s consumption and production patterns more resource efficient and sustainable. However, such growing interest calls for precaution as well, as there is yet no harmonised method to assess whether a specific CE strategy contributes towards sustainable consumption and production. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is very well suited to assess the sustainability impacts of CE strategies. This position paper of the Life Cycle Initiative (hosted by UNEP) provides an LCA perspective on the development, adoption, and implementation of CE, while pointing out strengths and challenges in LCA as an assessment methodology for CE strategies.