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The world faces an increasing need to phase out harmful chemicals and design sustainable alternatives across various consumer products and industrial applications. Alternatives assessment is an emerging field with focus on identifying viable solutions to substitute harmful chemicals. However, current methods fail to consider trade-offs from human and ecosystem exposures, and from impacts associated with chemical supply chains and product life cycles. To close this gap, we propose a life cycle based alternatives assessment (LCAA) framework for consistently integrating quantitative exposure and life cycle impact performance in the substitution process. We start with a pre-screening based on function-related decision rules, followed by three progressive tiers from (1) rapid risk screening of various alternatives for the consumer use stage, to (2) an assessment of chemical supply chain impacts for selected alternatives with substantially different synthesis routes, and (3) an assessment of product life cycle impacts for alternatives with substantially different product life cycles. Each tier focuses on relevant impacts and uses streamlined assessment methods. While the initial risk screening will be sufficient for evaluating chemicals with similar supply chains, each additional tier helps further restricting the number of viable solutions, while avoiding unacceptable trade-offs. We test our LCAA framework in a proof-of-concept case study for identifying suitable alternatives to a harmful plasticizer in household flooring. Results show that the use stage dominates human health impacts across alternatives, supporting that a rapid risk screening is sufficient unless very different supply chains or a broader set of alternative materials or technologies are considered. Combined with currently used indicators for technical and economic performance, our LCAA framework is suitable for informing function-based substitution at the level of chemicals, materials and product applications to foster green and sustainable chemistry solutions. 

Thermoset composites represent a substantial challenge for recycling, even as composite products increase in market interest. The concept of putting all future thermoset composite products into landfills over the next decades is unlikely to continue. This paper examines the three eras in the history of thermoset product recycling, the drivers for increased recycling, and possible future trends. Technology for managing thermoset composite products at end-of-life first focused on retrieving fiber and to a lesser extent resin. Then in a second era, research focused on better utilization of recovered fiber and finally the third era is now keeping more of the original resin–fiber structure to reuse these composites. Drivers are emerging to stimulate thermoset recycling, including States with success in recycling other challenging products (tires, carpets, automobile parts, etc.) setting policy and fees to encourage recycling. The evolution of heat recovery as a thermoset recycling option in Europe is another driver. Additionally, efforts at certification of recycled fiber quality may stimulate greater reuse.