Latest news with #advancedrecycling
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Advanced Recycling ‘False Solution' To Plastic Crisis, Study Finds
SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 2: Recycled plastic bottles are seen at the San Francisco Recycling Center ... More March 2, 2005 in San Francisco, California. Bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages, more than doubling over the last decade. Only about 12 percent of plastic bottles, mostly water, were recycled in 2003, according to industry consultant R.W. Beck, Inc. Since most bottled water is consumed away from home where recycling isn't an option, an estimated 40 million bottles a day go into the trash or become litter. (Photo by) Advanced recycling processes offer nothing more than a 'false solution' to the plastic waste crisis, according to a new analysis. The report by the Center for Climate Integrity claims advanced recycling processes are not environmentally friendly, do not address the problem of hard-to-recycle mixed plastics and do not enable a circular economy. Advanced recycling is a term used to describe various chemical recycling processes, which break down plastics into their constituent elements. The process is different to mechanical recycling, which uses machinery to physically shred plastics into smaller pieces. The report argues the plastics industry presents advanced recycling as new and groundbreaking, but processes for the chemical recycling of plastics were patented as early as the 1950s. It also says the plastics industry has promised advanced recycling is scaling up and will soon be sufficiently developed to address the global waste crisis, despite various economic and technical limitations. And many chemical recycling processes produce a host of hazardous pollutants and are extremely energy-intensive, despite claims they are environmentally friendly. The report also says the plastics industry defines advanced recycling as "circular," even though these processes do not keep plastic in the production cycle and do not reduce or offset the production of virgin plastic made from fossil fuels. The report states the plastics industry has long acknowledged the public's concerns about the environmental impacts of plastics and presents advanced recycling as a way to resolve those issues. And it claims experts' concerns about the environmental impacts of chemical recycling have been largely ignored by the industry. Report author Davis Allen said industry insiders have made clear, again and again, these technologies will not address plastic pollution at any meaningful scale in a statement. Ocean Conservancy's director of plastics policy, Dr. Anja Brandon said the new study confirms chemical recycling is not the answer to plastic pollution in a statement. Dr. Brandon added chemical recycling technologies are expensive, inefficient, and harmful to environmental and public health. 'We already know that using less single-use plastics, improvements to existing mechanical recycling, and cleaning up the plastics that do end up in the environment are proven to be effective in combating the plastic pollution crisis,' she said. 'The timing of this report is more important than ever, as the plastics industries attempt to push chemical recycling instead of proven solutions at the state, federal, and international levels.' But Matthew Kastner, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council's plastics division said groups who claim advanced recycling 'isn't real' appear to be ignoring science, innovation, and measurable results in a statement. Kastner added reports built on selective data and anti-plastic agendas do nothing to advance real environmental progress. 'Advanced recycling is already making a real impact—turning used plastics into new materials, conserving resources, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to using virgin plastic,' he added. 'America's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars to expand recycling capacity and improve efficiency while advocating for smart policies that enhance collection and sorting so more plastics can be remade into new products.' In November 2023, Oceana released the results of a nationwide poll, which found over 70% of respondents are concerned about the negative impacts of chemical recycling. And more than three-quarters (79%) were concerned about the serious health risks associated with toxic chemical emissions from chemical recycling plants. Additionally, 76% of those surveyed said they were concerned about the disproportionate impact on neighborhoods near chemical recycling plants.
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Plastics industry pushed ‘advanced recycling' despite knowing problems
Plastic producers have pushed 'advanced recycling' as a salve to the plastic waste crisis despite knowing for years that it is not a technically or economically feasible solution, a new report argues. 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 Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion '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.'
