Chemical recycling is an environmental health risk and will not solve the plastic crisis, a new report shows. Besides, more than half of carbon in the plastic is lost in the process of upgrading the gas or oil outputs. The technical assessment Chemical Recycling: Status, Sustainability and Environmental Impacts finds that chemical recycling so far has had more cons than pros.
There are already a few legislative proposals trying to address the issue. The Circular Plastic Alliance aims at reaching 10 millions tonnes of recycled content on the EU market by 2025, the EU Single-Use Plastic Directive requires to integrate 25% recycled plastic (recycled content) by 2025 in PET bottles and 30% by 2030 in all types beverage bottles and the EU Plastic Strategy aims to make all plastic packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030.
On the other hand, the Circular Economy Action Plan by the EU Commission says the it will support projects “exploring the potential of chemical recycling”. A Joint Research Center will start after the summer with a technical, economic and life cycle assessment of chemical recycling versus mechanical recycling and energy recovery of plastics. Before better technologies will become effective, according to the paper, old mechanical recycling (made of melting and physical reshaping, among other steps) remains the best recycling option as it results in less toxins and a smaller carbon footprint.
Source: Forbes
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