ICYMI: Three Companies Pull Back on U.S. Chemical Recycling Operations, Further Illustrating Chemical Recycling’s Role as a Distraction, Not an Actual Solution to the Plastics Problem
Last Two Weeks Brought Major Retreats in Ohio, Kentucky, and Texas
For Immediate Release: June 9, 2026
Contacts:
Melissa Valliant, Beyond Plastics — melissavalliant@bennington.edu, (410) 829-0726
Rita O’Connell, Beyond Plastics — ritaoconnell@bennington.edu, (575) 224-1869
Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics — judithenck@bennington.edu, (518) 605-1770
Recent public announcements are providing further evidence that “chemical recycling” is not a solution to the plastic waste crisis, despite continued petrochemical industry claims positioning it as one.
In only the past two weeks:
May 24: Braven Environmental canceled its plans to build a new $145 million pyrolysis plant in Texarkana, Texas — the second time in several years that it has failed to move ahead with a planned new facility.
May 29: Green Mountain Energy LLC withdrew its application for a water pollution permit with the Army Corps of Engineers for a proposed plastics-to-fuel plant on the Ohio River in West Paducah, Kentucky.
June 1: Freepoint Eco-Systems suspended operations at its facility in Hebron, Ohio, laying off 92 people and raising questions about its new proposal in Eloy, Arizona.
With Freepoint’s suspension of operations, Beyond Plastics is now aware of only eight “chemical recycling” facilities operating commercially nationwide. Six of the eight operational facilities are pyrolysis plants, like all three of the above canceled or halted projects. Opaque information from the industry leaves a lot of open questions about the performance, output, and environmental impacts of the remaining facilities. But there can be no question that, despite repeated promises to the contrary, “chemical recycling” is doing virtually nothing to address the enormous — and rapidly growing — plastics crisis. Instead, it’s setting communities up to deal with job losses, major environmental burdens, and wasted public subsidies.
“The gap between industry rhetoric and operational reality here is wider than the Grand Canyon,” said Rita O’Connell, national plastics organizer for Beyond Plastics. “Chemical recycling has never worked in the past, it’s not working now, and there’s no evidence it’s going to work in the future. In what other area would we tolerate this kind of repeated failure, while continuing to invest huge amounts of money in what amounts to wishful thinking?”
Plastics and petrochemical companies have been positioning “chemical recycling” as the solution to plastic waste for decades, even though they know that it is technically, economically, and environmentally unfeasible. Despite all the mounting evidence of failure, lobbyists are still pushing for policies that will weaken oversight of pyrolysis and other so-called “chemical recycling” technologies, including advancing multiple bills in Congress and proposing rule changes at the Environmental Protection Agency.
“At a moment when industry lobbyists are crawling all over Congress, the EPA, and many state legislatures to try to promote chemical recycling facilities across the country, these failures and delays tell a critically important story,” said Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics president, former EPA regional administrator, and co-author of “The Problem with Plastic.” “And while the industry continues distracting policymakers and regulators with this false solution, it’s simultaneously preventing policymakers from implementing the one effective strategy: making less plastic.”
The previously mentioned eight so-called “chemical recycling” facilities currently operating in the United States are:
Braven in Zebulon, North Carolina (pyrolysis) — status unclear: phone number disconnected, media email bouncing back
Brightmark in Ashley, Indiana (pyrolysis) — reportedly operating at limited capacity
Alterra in Akron, Ohio (pyrolysis)
Nexus Circular in Atlanta, Georgia (pyrolysis)
ExxonMobil in Baytown, Texas (pyrolysis)
BASF in Port Arthur, Texas (pyrolysis)
PureCycle in Ironton, Ohio (solvent-based dissolution)
Eastman in Kingsport, Tennessee (gasification, solvolysis)
For more on the problems with chemical recycling, read Beyond Plastics 2023 report here.
About Beyond Plastics
Launched in 2019, Beyond Plastics pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution. Using deep policy and advocacy expertise, Beyond Plastics is building a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts for the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.
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