Critics claim the plastic industry’s bookkeeping and marketing practices obscure the environmental harms associated with ‘chemical recycling,’ also known as ‘advanced recycling.’ While the industry promotes these technologies as solutions to plastic pollution, critics argue they are essentially rebranded forms of plastic incineration.
These technologies use chemicals, heat, or pressure to break down plastic waste into molecular components. A common method, pyrolysis, converts waste plastic into oil, which can then be processed into chemicals for new plastics. Critics point out that chemical recycling facilities have produced a minimal amount of recycled plastic to date. However, products increasingly feature labels like ‘20% recycled plastic,’ which may mislead consumers and greenwash environmentally damaging incineration processes.
Source: Mongabay