The circular economy aims to keep products, components and materials in use and reduce dependence on the linear model of extraction, production and disposal. However, a strategy that increases the circularity of a particular material is not necessarily the best environmental option in every situation.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a broad perspective for assessing these strategies. By considering upstream and downstream stages, LCA helps identify impacts that may occur outside the process directly associated with a circular initiative. A solution may, for example, reduce the use of virgin raw materials while requiring more energy, transport, treatment or processing.
LCA makes it possible to assess trade-offs across environmental indicators such as climate change, water use, energy consumption and resources. It can also help compare options and identify which circular strategies have the greatest potential to improve the environmental performance of production and consumption patterns.
The Life Cycle Initiative's 2020 position paper highlighted this role for LCA and identified methodological challenges that remain relevant: accounting for changes in resource stocks, modelling open-loop recycling, including relevant resources and impacts, and ensuring transparency in assumptions, data and interpretation.
Circularity is a means of pursuing sustainability goals, not a sufficient indicator on its own. Combining circular strategies with a life-cycle perspective supports more robust decisions and reduces the risk of shifting impacts from one stage, region or environmental category to another.