Senators wade into debate on chemical recycling of plastics – USA

Posted on December 24, 2022 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling

Source

A key senator on environmental policy, Delaware Democrat Tom Carper, for example, questioned industry representatives at the Dec. 15 hearing about whether chemical recycling of plastics could hurt the economics of mechanical recycling, if they both start competing for the same feedstocks.

“I’ve heard concerns from the plastics recycling community that increasing the number of chemical recycling facilities in the U.S. could hurt the financial viability of mechanical recycling facilities,” said Carper, chairs of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which held the hearing.

“Can you identify any backstops in place to make sure that as chemical recycling grows, it does not take feedstocks from the mechanical recycling facilities,” Carper asked Eric Hartz, president of Nexus Circular LLC in Atlanta. “And do we need for the government to provide those backstops?”

Hartz, who was one of two industry speakers on the panel, told Carper that chemical recycling, which is sometimes called advanced recycling, doesn’t compete for the same materials, and should not.

 

Why would these supposed learned people be debating between two technologies that between them add up to less than 5% of plastic recycling. There are 95% other reasons to debate on how to recycled more plastic and indeed if it can even be recycled! Recycling of plastic should drive down the need for the use of virgin plastic, if it does not do that, then it is not recycling but just repurposing of plastic and doing little to stop the futher production of items from virgin materials. But then the plastics industry already know this, they just won’t admit it.