Fuente: PubMed "essential OR oil extract" J Environ Manage. 2026 Mar 28;404:129399. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.129399. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe growing use of plastics in a 'take-make-use-dispose' model, combined with inefficient waste management techniques, creates significant environmental challenges. Chemical recycling of plastics offers promising pathways to enable a circular plastics economy. A substantial number of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have been conducted in recent years to evaluate the sustainability implications of chemical recycling pathways for plastics under various scenarios. A comprehensive, state-of-the-art review is essential for compiling information, comparing the differences and synergies, and identifying the challenges to advancing the circular economy. This review paper assesses and compares published LCA studies on chemical recycling of waste plastics, focusing on how inventory assumptions and methodological choices drive variability in sustainability outcomes. Assessment shows that inconsistent assumptions related to the upstream stages of chemical recycling across studies contributed 5-26% of the climate change impact. Furthermore, variations in system boundary selection and co-product crediting approaches lead to a wide range of reported greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, spanning from strongly negative (-0.35 kg CO2 eq./kg waste) to highly positive emissions (>2 kg CO2 eq./kg waste). The analysis shows that no single chemical recycling pathway consistently outperforms others across all impact categories, and that higher yields of monomers or high-value chemicals generally lead to lower climate change impact burdens. While climate change impacts dominate existing assessments, other impact categories such as human toxicity, water use, and cumulative energy demand are frequently excluded, leading to issues such as burden shifting. The review highlights the need for transparent reporting of all LCA-related assumptions with dynamic LCA frameworks that incorporate stochastic representations of feedstock and process parameter variabilities, parametric sensitivity analysis, and scenario-based modeling. Such methodological approaches can enable meaningful comparison across studies and support informed decision-making for the sustainable management of plastic waste.PMID:41911657 | DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.129399