More Recycling Lies: What the Plastics Industry Isn't Telling You About "Chemical Recycling"
For decades, the plastic industry has promised that recycling would solve the problem of plastic waste, yet the plastic crisis continues to grow. The dismal U.S. plastic recycling rate continues to hover around 5 percent. Globally, plastic use is projected to almost triple by 2060, relative to a 2019 baseline.
NRDC’s new issue brief “More Recycling Lies” confirms and expands on our previous findings: So-called “chemical recycling” is mostly plastic incineration.
Chemical Recycling: A False Promise for the Ohio River Valley
Ohio River Valley Institute’s July 2024 report explores the many reasons why chemical recycling is a false promise for the region, from hazardous chemicals, to greenhouse gas emissions, the habitat and ecosystem degradation, to the technology’s expense and general lack of success, and more.
Loopholes, Injustice, & the “Advanced Recycling” Myth
The report exposes misinformation spread by the fossil fuel industry about advanced recycling, chemical recycling, and other toxic and climate-damaging technologies that melt, boil, and burn plastic waste. Just Zero’s report focuses on the American Chemistry Council’s extensive lobbying efforts to create state law loopholes that help these facilities evade public oversight and environmental protections, and provide financial support for advanced recycling.
Recycling Lies: “Chemical Recycling” Of Plastic Is Just Greenwashing Incineration | NRDC Issue Brief
As public concern grows about mountains of plastic trash, the plastics industry is promoting technologies that it misleadingly calls “chemical recycling” (also known as advanced recycling, molecular recycling, and chemical conversion) and touts as a solution to the plastic crisis. But it is a false solution.