Enabling a circular economy for plastics in Europe and beyond is an ambitious goal. To reach a fully closed loop, numerous challenges and knowledge gaps need to be overcome. This review provides a list of more than 6000 chemicals reported to be found in plastics and an overview of the challenges and gaps in assessing their impacts on the environment and human health along the life cycle of plastic products. We further identified 1518 plastic-related chemicals of concern, which should be prioritized for substitution by safer alternatives. At last, we propose five policy recommendations, including the need of a global and overarching regulatory framework for plastics and related chemicals, in support of a circular economy for plastics and of target 12.4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

在欧洲及其他地区实现塑料循环经济是一个雄心勃勃的目标。要实现完全封闭的循环，需要克服众多挑战和知识差距。这篇综述提供了一份清单，列出了据报道在塑料中发现的 6000 多种化学物质，并概述了在塑料产品生命周期中评估它们对环境和人类健康的影响方面的挑战和差距。我们进一步确定了 1518 种受关注的塑料相关化学品，应优先使用更安全的替代品进行替代。最后，我们提出了五项政策建议，包括需要一个针对塑料和相关化学品的全球性总体监管框架，以支持塑料循环经济和联合国可持续发展目标的具体目标 12.4。