Plastics industry pushed ‘advanced recycling' despite knowing problems
Advanced recycling, also known as chemical recycling, refers to a variety of processes used break plastics into tiny molecules. The industry has increasingly promoted these technologies, as public concern about the environmental and health concerns of plastic pollution have grown. Yet the roll out of these technologies has been plagued by problems, found the new analysis from fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI).
'The companies make it sound like it's pretty great, like it's something we should pursue,' said Davis Allen, investigative researcher at the CCI and lead author of the report. 'But they know the problems, the limitations.'
The new analysis follows a 2024 CCI report which alleged that plastic producers concealed the problems with traditional recycling, and argued that they could face legal ramifications for doing so. That earlier research was cited in a September lawsuit filed by California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, against ExxonMobil for its role in the plastic pollution crisis.
'The new report focuses on this modern deception with advanced recycling, which has become a real focus for the industry in recent years,' said Davis.
Companies have depicted advanced recycling as groundbreaking and new. A 2020 video from Chevron Phillips, a joint venture between Chevron and Phillips 66, calls it a 'revolutionary innovation that can turn a piece of plastic into a new material again and again and again'. Three years later, ExxonMobil's CEO, Darren Woods, called the technology 'brand new' in an interview, the report notes.
The air of newness, which has been echoed by publications and politicians. However, though there have been some new technological innovations, chemical recycling processes were patented as early as the 1950s, and have been touted as a solution to plastic waste by trade groups since the 1970s. Back in 1977, for instance, a brochure from the trade group Society of the Plastics Industry claimed that the most common form of advanced recycling, pyrolysis, would allow plastic waste to be 'recycled into feedstocks that can be used again to make new plastics', the report notes.
Asked to comment on the research, ExxonMobil spokesperson Michelle Gray said: 'Advanced recycling is a proven technology – one which the EU recognizes as a solution to plastic waste. We've processed more than 80m lbs of plastic at our Baytown facility since startup that might otherwise have gone to landfills'
Chevron Phillips declined to comment.
Society of the Plastics Industry did not respond to a request for comment.
Though it has existed for decades, these technologies have still not been realized at scale because they face strong limitations. Though they do not seem to mention them in ads or public relations campaigns, the industry has long been familiar with those problems, the report says.
One major issue: the processes are expensive, requiring large amounts of energy, fuel, and labor. In 1991, a market research firm said the 'economics of these processes has not been demonstrated,' and at a 1994 trade meeting, Exxon Chemical vice-president Irwin Levowitz called pyrolysis 'fundamentally uneconomical', the analysis says.
The industry has failed to highlight not only the economic challenges of advanced recycling, but also its technical limitations, Allen argues. Industry group America's Plastic Makers – part of the trade group American Chemistry Council – for instance, has often claimed the processes can transform plastic waste into 'brand new plastic'. And in 2023, energy giant Shell claimed in a video that chemical recycling can process plastics 'used in many places like homes, hospitals, transportation, construction, agriculture and electronics'.
However, many chemical recycling facilities do not turn plastic into new plastic; rather, they produce only fuel.
'That undermines the claim that they're creating a circular economy – it's not circular if you're not using the materials to make new plastic,' said Allen.
Further, post-consumer items cannot easily be processed with advanced recycling. The process works best with clean, homogeneous inputs, and since sorting and cleaning consumer products is expensive, so many facilities working at scale process mostly clean, un-dyed industrial waste. It's an issue raised in California's 2024 lawsuit against Exxon.
In an email, the American Chemistry Council spokesperson Matthew Kastner said: 'Activist groups who claim advanced recycling 'isn't real' appear to be ignoring science, innovation, and measurable results. skip past newsletter promotion
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'Reports built on selective data and anti-plastic agendas do nothing to advance real environmental progress,' he said, adding: 'Groups like the Center for Climate Integrity … who claim expertise on advanced recycling despite likely never having visited a facility, were founded to dismantle the petrochemical industry in the United States, killing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenue.'
The Guardian has also contacted Shell for comment.
Another problem the industry does not frequently address publicly: the pollution caused by advanced recycling. Though 'the plastics industry positions advanced recycling as an environmentally-friendly solution for plastic waste', the report says, the processes emit toxic and planet-warming pollutants.
The industry acknowledges this fact internally, the report says, noting a 2024 report from consulting firm Roland Berger which addresses advanced recycling's 'substantial' carbon footprint, and a 2023 industry presentation from engineering firm AMI consulting which said the environmental effects of the technologies 'need to be taken seriously'.
The Guardian has asked Roland Berger for comment.
Are microplastics really in everything – even my brain?
The limitations of advanced recycling generally go unmentioned in public by companies, but have long been raised by environmentalists. Privately, industry interests have given credence to those concerns.
'The concerns of industry critics are, in many cases, justified,' one industry consultant explained at a 2023 conference sponsored by the trade group American Chemistry Council, the report notes.
It is possible that the new research could inspire additional litigation, but its main purpose is to inform the public, said Allen.
'The information ecosystem around advanced recycling is totally dominated by the industry itself,' Allen said. 'Our hope is that our work gives people the tools they need to break down and assess the industry's claims.'
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