The Deadly Lies About "Advanced Recycling"
“Advanced Recycling.” That’s the false solution to our plastic waste crisis that the American Chemistry Council, a plastics industry lobbying group, is selling to state legislatures, Congress, and the American public.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is. So-called “advanced recycling” is not advanced, nor is it recycling. Rather, ”advanced recycling” is a cynical ploy to turn a plastic crisis into a dangerous air pollution and toxic waste problem.
Not only is “advanced recycling” deadly, it is also costing all of us billions of dollars in tax subsidies to the plastics industry.
Moms Clean Air Force has been fighting against these greenwashed incineration technologies for the past two years. Unfortunately, we don’t have the tens of millions of dollars that the plastics industry is throwing at this matter.
At the state level, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has convinced more than 24 state legislatures to pass laws reclassifying these incinerators as recycling or manufacturing facilities. Eleven facilities have been built. One has already shut down. In the US Congress, ACC has been lobbying for a bill that would allow incinerators to evade EPA Clean Air Act regulations.
PureCycle facility, Lawrence County, OH, Photo: Ted Auch
What's at stake here?
We’ve put together the following document to show you what the plastics lobby is up to. For your reference, please see:
“Chemical Recycling” 101
Fact sheet with sources
Our plastics and petrochemical work
Additional info and resources on our website
The Truth About “Advanced Recycling”
20-second video
1. "Advanced recycling": a false solution to a real plastic crisis
The American Chemistry Council, a plastics industry lobbying group, is pushing a bill in Congress to deregulate facilities that burn plastic waste. Most of these facilities involve a type of incineration called pyrolysis that heats up plastic trash and turns it into harmful air pollution, chemical wastes, and heavily contaminated industrial fuels.
The plastics industry’s goal is to carry out incineration-on-the-cheap in communities across the country. The ACC wants to reclassify the process as “not solid waste incineration.” That would enable the industry to burn plastic trash without pollution controls, without the “incinerator” label, and without being constrained by zoning laws that restrict locating facilities near schools, daycare centers, and playgrounds.
2. Some of the most toxic chemicals known to mankind
Solid waste incinerators including pyrolysis incinerators are regulated by section 129 of the Clean Air Act. The law requires these facilities to adhere to strict air pollution limits for 9 chemicals. These provisions were included in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 because Congress knew that incinerators release some of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind.
Plastics pyrolysis incinerators are dangerous. The temperature and oxygen levels in these dual-chamber incinerators are optimal for the generation of dioxins and other extremely potent carcinogens. Yet the American Chemistry Council is attempting to exempt this heavily polluting category of incinerators from air-pollution control laws.
While attempting to sidestep the Clean Air Act, the American Chemistry Council has been calling for the adoption of laws and policies that are in line with state and international regulations. Plastics lobbyists can safely play up state and US international obligations because there are none.
In addition, the ACC has been trying to bar states or municipalities from any regulation that is at all related to plastics content, plastics labeling, plastics recycling, or so-called advanced recycling. Such pre-emption of state and local laws would be dangerous, unjust, and undemocratic.
3. What these toxic chemicals do to our bodies
The pollutants from these “advanced recycling” facilities include dioxins, PFAS chemicals, chlorinated and brominated flame retardants, benzene, formaldehyde, particulate matter, and heavy metals, such as mercury and arsenic.
Exposure to these pollutants increases the risk of cancer, birth defects, reproductive system damage, developmental issues, cardiovascular problems, respiratory impairment, hormonal irregularities, and neurological problems.
The American Chemistry Council wants to zero out any public access to information about what is being produced during pyrolysis. What they are seeking is a plastic-maker’s dream. Even Freedom of Information Act requests would be prohibited.
4. Plastic recycling is a failure — and so is "advanced recycling"
The plastics industry is on track to triple plastics production by 2050, but they have a problem: people are increasingly turned off by single-use plastic trash, and there is no safe and effective way to get rid of it. The recklessness of our throwaway culture has become more apparent since China’s 2018 decision to stop importing plastic waste. The plastics industry is desperate for a way to make plastic waste disappear.
Their solution is to greenwash an old incineration technology as a new, ecological way to recycle. This multi-million dollar “advanced recycling” campaign was prompted in part by the public awakening that conventional plastics recycling does not work.
Plastics recycling has been an abysmal failure in the U.S. and around the world, in part because plastics are made of carcinogens. Mixed plastics waste is full of recycling-incompatible resins such as PVC and polystyrene; heavy metals; and toxic chemicals. The mechanical recycling of plastics is hampered by the degradation of the polymer chains and the mix of thousands of different chemicals in plastic. Plastic recycling pollutes waterways with PFAS and other chemicals and with vast amounts of microplastic particles. It exposes workers to high concentrations of airborne plastics and leads to elevated concentrations of toxic chemicals in the recycled plastic products.
Researchers are finding excess amounts of toxic chemicals in recycled plastic children’s toys, water bottles, and food-contact materials. Not only does plastics recycling involve its own internal roadblocks, but plastics materials contaminate the valuable waste streams that can be successfully recycled, such as metals, glass, and paper.
The concentrated toxic chemicals in plastics are a problem in “advanced recycling” as well. Because plastic waste is so contaminated with “additive” plastics chemicals, the resulting pyrolysis oil is toxic, acidic, and corrosive to human health. It is also detrimental to the sensitive multi-billion-dollar steam cracking machinery. So as not to corrode the steel or destroy the expensive reactor tubes, companies making “advanced recycled plastic” have to dilute the plastics pyrolysis oil with at least 98 percent virgin petrochemical feedstocks. The technical ceiling for “advanced recycled” plastic content is 2 percent, and usually the amount of waste-plastic feedstock is far less.
5. Advanced-recycled plastic claims are imaginary
Plastics companies are using deceptive accounting schemes to count packaging as “recycled” even when it has no physical recycled content whatsoever. The companies burn the waste plastic in pyrolysis incinerators, crack the resulting oils in steam crackers (to break apart the molecular bonds), and then sell virtual credits for imaginary recycled plastic content.
Companies like ExxonMobil sell advanced recycled plastic credits to product companies, which label their packaging as “circular” or “recycled.” Customers are deceived into thinking that the packaging they are buying is different – and more ecological – than other plastic.
There is no transparency, traceability, or accountability, and the auditors are paid directly by the plastics companies, a clear conflict of interest.
6. Who pays for all these new facilities that produce pollution and toxic chemicals?
We all do, through massive government subsidies to the petrochemical industry. Some subsidies take the form of hard cash, but most operate by removing expenses from the petrochemical facilities’ balance sheets so that facilities are not restricted by zoning, taxation, and environmental regulations. Exempting plastics pyrolysis incinerators from the Clean Air Act would be the grandfather of all subsidies.
On top of all these other handouts, the plastics industry envisions substantial new federal programs to pay for and support all the new “advanced recycling” infrastructure.
In essence, the U.S. government would be rolling out a massive new welfare program for the petrochemical industry.
Learn more about Moms' work on "advanced recycling."
Released: March 2024