A new form of plastic recycling is hitting the market, and industry experts are optimistic that it will be a turning point for an industry long criticized for its ineffectiveness. Dubbed “Advanced Recycling,” the process is able to take once unrecyclable plastics and melt them down into their base forms, adding an extra layer on top of the current plastic recycling process. The plastics industry hopes that this process will create a “circular economy” of plastic, enabling companies to consume fewer newly created plastics and promote the use of recycled plastics.
The advanced recycling process takes waste plastics from recycling centers and from consumers and uses a combination of chemical solutions and heat to turn the molded plastic back into its original organic compound. This results in recycled plastics that are almost indistinguishable from their new counterparts, something which standard mechanical recycling was never capable of.
Several facilities capable of conducting these chemical processes already exist, but the scale at which they can recycle is heavily limited. The largest facility in the U.S. can process up to 60 tons of plastic waste daily, but with almost 100,000 types of plastic produced every day, their impact is minimal. And while these facilities do add to the types of materials that can be recycled, it still excludes an incredibly large amount of un-recyclable plastics that end up in landfills.
One of the main factors impacting the performance of these facilities is the separation process. More often than not, recyclable material is combined with non-recyclable materials of all sorts: electronics, batteries, styrofoam, and non-recyclable plastics. All of this needs to be removed manually to properly recycle, which is a tedious and expensive process. This leads to companies opting to use fresh plastic since it is cheaper than recycled plastics.
Critics of advanced recycling believe that the technology is just another gimmick to keep the plastics industry alive. One of the highlights of their argument is the economics; new plastic will always be cheaper than recycled since it is essentially a cheap byproduct of the fossil fuel industry. Promotions like these allow corporations to continue to increase their plastic production and use of fresh plastic while putting little effort into managing the waste that they create.
Many are also continuing to point out the business practices that the fossil fuel industry is using to promote and construct these facilities. Some have begun to lobby against regulation in the industry, promoting policies that would make it easier for advanced recycling facilities to be classified as manufacturing plants instead of waste-management facilities. This classification would allow companies to avoid following the Clean Air Act which would make it easier to dispose of potentially hazardous materials. For an industry long-plagued with controversy about disproportionate health impacts on low-income and minority neighborhoods, some fear that advanced recycling may be the next step in the exploitation of these areas.
Because advanced recycling is a recent innovation, there is little research about the environmental impact of these plants, but experts assure they are likely to be cleaner since the process used is anaerobic and does not burn the plastics.
With many strong opinions on both sides, some experts believe that the middle ground will be able to create a solution that can be beneficial to the environment. While advanced recycling might be a way for the plastics industry to extend its lifespan and profitability, the technology could also be the solution to sustainable plastic use. A truly circular economy of recycled plastics, while extremely limiting the production of fresh plastic, could significantly reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the environment. The feasibility of this goal is another question, but what almost everyone can agree on is that something needs to be done to combat the growing problem of plastic waste.
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