Plastic utilisation.
Technologies that Keep Plastics in Play Must Be a Part of the Integrated Solution to End Plastic Waste
A new era of advanced recycling for plastics, also referred to as “chemical recycling,” has the potential to help the nation achieve global sustainability goals and a climate-neutral, circular economy. As much as half of all global plastics packaging could be recycled by 2040 if chemical recycling technologies were widely adopted. Innovative recycling and recovery technologies have enormous economic value in transforming post-use and difficult-to-recycle plastic into their original building blocks that can be continually reintegrated to supply chains as feedstocks for new plastics and chemicals, other raw materials for manufacturing, and lower-environmental-footprint transportation fuels without the need for virgin materials. Unlike traditional recycling, advanced recycling can handle contamination, impurities, mixed polymers, and low-quality, low-density plastics. By producing virgin-grade plastic feedstock, the process also avoids “downcycling,” which decreases material quality over time. Conceptually, advanced recycling can be an infinite recycling process.
Houston as a Leader in a Circular Plastics Economy
The Houston metropolitan area comprises the largest concentration of petrochemical manufacturing in the world. It is the intellectual capital for the energy industry value chain, presenting enormous leadership opportunities for chemical recycling advancements in the global economic, energy, and sustainability arenas. A recent report by the Center for Houston’s Future and the University of Houston illustrates that based on current plastics production capacity and the types of plastic wastes generated in the Houston area, the region could support up to 100 advanced recycling facilities by 2030, each capable of processing 25,000 tons per year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year, and in total supporting 15,000 jobs and half a billion dollars in annual payroll. The report projects that by 2050, these facilities and economic impacts are likely to grow by at least a factor of three.
Another analysis demonstrates that chemically recycling just 25 percent of the recoverable polymers in Texas could support 40 advanced recycling and recovery facilities, generating over $500 million in economic output each year. In the U.S. and Canada alone, the existing combined addressable market opportunity for plastics and petrochemicals that could be met, in part, by recovering waste plastics, totals $120 billion annually.[1]
Recently Proposed Federal Legislation Could Obstruct Advancements to a Circular and Sustainable Plastics Future
Houston’s prominence in plastics manufacturing, along with its relatively low energy prices and an increasing availability of price-competitive renewable electricity, places the region in a unique position to lead the circular plastics economy. However, recent policy proposals at the federal level are threatening the advancement of a sustainable plastics economy. The recently introduced Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act, intended to build a clean energy economy and achieve net zero GHGs by 2050, would in its current form exacerbate vulnerable supply chains by placing an inordinate pause on permits for advanced recycling facilities and new plastics production facilities. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act incorporates a similar hold on new plastic production facilities and prevents advanced recycling technologies from expanding the types and amounts of plastics that can be recycled.
These proposed pieces of legislation would hamper the nation’s ability to sustainably manufacture and recycle all varieties of polymers that our current recycling systems and technologies cannot manage, meaning the post-use plastics that are not widely recycled today will have an end-of-life destined for landfills, incinerators or abandoned in the environment. This runs counter to a circular economy where the goal is to retain the economic value of materials by “keeping the molecule in play” and creating a closed loop and continuous supply chain. The legislation as drafted would be an economic and disruptive burden for existing and future recycling markets and act as a barrier to meeting recycling content goals as well as the nation’s commitment to climate targets, jobs creation, and sustainability. Policy that restricts advanced recycling markets is in direct contradiction to Biden’s plan for developing sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy future.
China’s import restrictions on plastic wastes, shortages of manufacturing feedstock during the pandemic, and halted petrochemical production due to unprecedented freezing weather have exposed the domestic plastic production and recycling infrastructure’s fragility. Further, the lack of acknowledgement for advanced recycling in both bills, coupled with President Biden’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, which fails to include increasing domestic infrastructure of traditional recycling systems, will render the recycling network inadequate and intensify the plastic waste crisis. Advanced recycling in conjunction with modernizing traditional mechanical processes will accelerate domestic recycling supply chains, reducing virgin plastic imports and often unethical plastic waste exports.
Adaptable and Innovative Policies
Policies that fail to foster innovation or adapt to changing societal needs will create obstacles for circular economy and sustainability goals in the U.S. In The Future of Plastics Sustainability: Advanced Recycling, I note that the government should explore actions that implement social and environmental justice through transparent policies informed by life cycle assessments (LCAs). Advanced recycling complements existing mechanical recycling and reduces the environmental footprint of plastics packaging. An LCA conducted by Sphera concludes that advanced recycling of mixed plastic waste emits 50% less CO2 than incineration. Another analysis by Good Company demonstrates that air emissions from pyrolysis-based advanced recycling facilities capable of processing up to 55,000 tons of post-use plastics annually, are likely to be below most Clean Air Act Title V operating permitting thresholds, and generate emissions similar to or lower than an average hospital or college campus.
As stated in my policy recommendations on Waste Management and the Energy Transition: The Path to Sustainability and a Circular Economy, it is important that policy is in line with systems-level thinking and that LCAs capture the true worth of plastics. A number of studies show that plastics materials have environmental and economic advantages over conventional materials, like glass, metal or paperboard. The Imperial College of London concluded that if all plastic bottles were instead made with glass, CO2 emissions would be equivalent to adding 22 large coal power plants.
Technologies that are critical components to national priorities of emissions reduction and energy diversification all rely on plastics, such as batteries, wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles where plastics make up 50 percent of a vehicle's volume. Further, common essential items such as food packaging, medical supplies, and hygienic packaging cannot use mechanically recycled plastics because they do not meet product safety requirements. Chemical recycling has the capability of creating high quality polymers that can sustain these industries and eliminate demand for virgin plastic production.
Investing in the Value Chain—Coordination, Communication and Commitments
For chemical recycling to be economically viable and publically and politically palatable, coordination and investments are needed to ensure quality, consistency and availability of feedstocks as well as reassurance that the process and products do not compromise the environment or public health.
A circular economy requires new economic and social arrangements that account for and address the world’s interconnecting materials, processes, and systems. With 368 million metric tons of plastics produced globally every year, the demand for plastics projected to triple by 2050, and only 9% of plastics recycled today, closing the loop on the diversity, complexity, and volume of plastics in our economy will require advanced recycling, redesign of polymers, value chain collaboration, investments, and sound policies.
Advanced recycling technologies are a sustainable solution towards combating the climate crisis and making infrastructure more resilient. It is also crucial to fulfill corporate and government commitments for sustainable plastics packaging. The U.S. can become a leader in plastics reuse and circular economy initiatives, but we must enact policy accordingly to ensure plastic products stay in our economy and out of the environment.
Leadership at the federal level is imperative to support our nation’s recycling system and ongoing congressional action sends a powerful message that the federal government prioritizes waste reduction and recycling. Policies that keep pace with innovation, are data-driven and consider systems-level impacts are what will ultimately shepherd the U.S. towards economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the circular plastics economy.
Rachel Meidl, Fellow for Energy and Environment at the Rice University’s Baker Institute
[1] Including other outputs, such as diesel and gasoline, jet fuels, and liquid oils, would significantly increase the market opportunity.
