As petrochemical companies continue to inundate the world with chintzy plastic products and packaging — much of which is designed to be used once and then cast away — they ’ve been heavily advance one solvent called “ chemic recycling . ”
This catch - all condition refers to processes and technologies that break charge card into their molecular building blocks and turn them into new products . In theory , chemical recycling is a promising way of life to deal with so - visit “ voiceless - to - recycle ” plastic like peignoir and bags , which ca n’t be recycle using conventional method .
But a new report from the nonprofits Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination web , or IPEN , says chemical recycling is a “ grave deception ” that will only exacerbate pollution and environmental injustice while go bad to direct the plastics crisis .
Photo: Carl Court (Getty Images)
“ The landscape painting of chemical substance recycling is litter with pollution and failure , ” and swear on it is an “ unreliable and polluting glide path ” to correct the world-wide plastic crisis , Jennifer Congdon , Beyond Plastics ’ deputy music director , distinguish journalists at a press conference on Tuesday . She and the report card co - authors called on President Joe Biden to place a national moratorium on new chemical substance recycling operations in the U.S. and urged international negotiant to disavow the process as part of the orbicular charge plate accord that will be discuss during a third circle of negotiation in Nairobi subsequently this month .
Beyond Plastics and IPEN’s159 - varlet reportbegins with an overview of the plastic pollution crisis and companies ’ “ undeniable ” failure to plow it through conventional recycling method . fit in to the Department of Energy , the U.S. plastic recycling rate is still onlyabout 5 percent , despite decades spent attempt to scale it up .
Notably , this view is brook in a prolusion by Lewis Freeman , former frailty president of government affairs for the Society of the Plastics Industry — a major lobbying group that in 2016 commute its name to thePlastics Industry Association . agree to Freeman , the plastics industry has long know that recycling “ could n’t realistically get by a significant amount of plastic waste , ” but has “ spent millions of dollars convincing the world otherwise . ” Freeman implies that chemical substance recycling is an extension of this deception and raises doubts that it will conduce to anindustry targetof “ reusing , recycling or recovering 100 per centum of formative publicity in the U.S. by 2040 . ”
The Plastics Industry Association did not answer to Grist ’s request for comment .
To evaluate the state of chemical substance recycling in the United States , Beyond Plastics and IPEN looked at the state ’s 11 chemical recycling readiness and witness that only three are dedicated entirely to producing feedstock for new plastic intersection ; the rest produce fuel to be burn , sometimes in combination with chemical for industrial use . Four facilities are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as generator of hazardous barren , and seven of them are located in surface area where there is a higher - than - average engrossment of hoi polloi of color . This course aligns with a formula of environmental shabbiness within the plastics manufacture , which has concentrated pollution - intensive plastic production quickness near Black and low - income biotic community inLouisiana , Texas , andPennsylvania .
Meanwhile , the paper finds that most of the facility are working only at a “ pilot program ” or “ demonstration ” scale of measurement and not at full capacity , despite efforts dating back to the 1980s to scale up chemical recycling technologies . Even if these 11 facilities were processing as much plastic as they say they can , Beyond Plastics and IPEN appraisal they would only go through 460,000 metric tons of plastic wastefulness per class — less than 1.3 percent of the amount generated in the U.S. annually .
“ The only thing in reality being recycle is the myth that recycling will solve the plastic contamination crisis , ” the new report articulate . It raise concern about a lot of state - stratum laws backed by the American Chemistry Council , an diligence lobbying mathematical group , to promote chemical substance recycling , including by loosening melody emissions controls and eliminating monitoring prerequisite . At least20 stateshave passed such deregulation constabulary .
The American Chemistry Council did not reply to Grist ’s request for commentary .
A spokesperson for Alterra , which operate a chemical recycling facility in Akron , Ohio , enounce the report was “ riddled with many misleading and erroneous conclusions ” and specifically described as “ defamatory ” the call that its facility was come near the limits of its air emissions permission while engage at below full capacitance . The party pronounce Beyond Plastics “ conveniently disregard ” publicly usable papers from a local melody quality governor showing that its facility ’s emissions are “ significantly below the limits of the air emission permit . ”
Beyond Plastics said Alterra ’s criticism was “ not based on fact , ” and that the documents the companionship provided do not contradict previous finding present that its facility had nearly violated its atmosphere emissions permission , and that the Ohio EPA decide on two juncture not to take enforcement action against it . “ We stand up by our report , ” said Judith Enck , Beyond Plastics ’ president and a former regional decision maker for the EPA .
Another hustler , Nexus Circular , sent Grist snippets of its website ’s FAQ page distinguish the chemical substance recycling cognitive process , and a third , ExxonMobil , said chemical substance recycling was a “ prove , scalable technology to twist plastic waste matter that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration into valuable new ware . ” PureCycle , which race a chemical recycling plant in Ironton , Ohio , slump to comment ahead of a quarterly net profit call on November 8 .
Six of the other seven company whose chemical recycling facility are named in the new story did not reply to Grist ’s petition for comment . Prima America Corporation , which operates a chemical recycling installation in New Hampshire , could not be get through because it does not have a website or a in public listed phone number .
To hold back greenwashing and prevent chemical recycling from further harming low - income communities and community of color , Beyond Plastics and IPEN call for Biden to adjudge a moratorium on all new chemical recycling plants , a step that environmental groups have antecedently suggested the president can takewithout congressional approving . They also recommended that all existing facilities be subject to “ full environmental impact assessments ” from the EPA . All federal , state , and local subsidies and incentives for chemical substance recycling should be finish , the author enunciate , and no labor that turn credit card into fuel should be tolerate .
On the international stagecoach , country are in the midst of negotiating ahistoric treatyon plastics . There ’s nothing in the treaty yet about chemical recycling — it ’s still avery scratchy draught — but Beyond Plastics and IPEN say it ’s vital that negotiators fight for language that explicitly label it an unlawful solution to the formative pollution crisis , potentially by classifying it as “ waste incineration ” rather than recycling , or by blocking it from counting toward required recycling targets . The third round of negotiations is scheduled to begin on November 13 , with the net pact due by the end of next year .
“ We do not want the pact negotiant — or legislator or regulators — to be distracted by the sour solution of chemical recycling , ” Enck told diary keeper on Tuesday . alternatively , she urged them to consider the simpler scheme of significantly reduce charge card production .
This clause originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/accountability/a-new-report-calls-chemical-recycling-a-dangerous-deception-and-a-former-plastic-lobbyist-agrees/. Grist is a nonprofit , independent culture medium establishment devote to tell story of climate solutions and a just future . Learn more atGrist.org
Energy conversionExxonMobilJoe BidenPlasticRecyclingWater Conservation
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and culture word in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
Please pick out your desired newssheet and state your email to raise your inbox .
You May Also Like
