As of 2024, in spite of growth in overall plastic recycling rates, over 70% of European plastic waste is either incinerated or sent to landfill. In the US, that figure is closer to 90%.
Both the USA and EU authorities have championed chemical recycling – also referred to as advanced recycling – as a likely way to address with hard-to-recycle materials like soft plastic films and integrated-material packaging, which are hard to recycle mechanically. But while these processes are technically possible, they’re still in their early phrases of expanding– chemically recycled materials made up less than 1% of all recycled plastics manufacturing in Europe in 2024.
Chemical recycling takes plastic waste and breaks it down into something that can be used to make new polymers. In many cases that includes pyrolysis – heating in the absence of oxygen – and yields an oily mixture of hydrocarbons that can either be processed itself or fed into petroleum refinery infrastructure alongside fossil materials to make new polymer feedstocks. Other methods appearance to more directly depolymerise materials into monomers that can feed directly back into polymer manufacturing.
But of the handfuls of plants which have made it to even small-scale manufacturing in the EU, many are facing difficulties for economic viability, with numerous closing in recent months. In the United States, two plants have been closed by authorities of running into issues around air pollution and coping with of hazardous wastes.
Environmental campaign groups claim that – far from being a solution to the issue of hard-to-recycle plastic waste – chemical recycling is being advanced by the major plastics producers as a way to avoid political interventions that would force them to reduce plastic manufacturing overall.
In Europe, there are plastic waste regulations at the horizon that goal to promote recycling, as well as to encouraging manufacturers to change the way they use materials to make products less difficult to recycle – either mechanically or chemically. Having fewer mixed materials and additives that complicate processing, for example. But delays and uncertainty around these guidelines mean that for some companies the advantages will now not reach soon enough. Without a clear regulatory framework, manufacturers are hesitant to invest the capital requirement to build and run the plants. And since customers looking to purchase polymer materials regularly need to lock in supplies for numerous years, they’re also cautious of being caught out and paying hefty premiums for recycled materials.
So the question stays – what role does chemical recycling have in the future of plastics? Can it, with support, live up to its promise of tackling problematic waste materials? And if not, what are the optional solutions?
