Chemical recycling promoted by industry as a potential solution to plastic waste management is not necessarily a panacea and could, without safeguards, compromise a truly circular economy, warned a study published by ZeroWaste Europe on Thursday 29 August.
This study emphasizes the importance of establishing an appropriate policy framework to make chemical recycling complementary to mechanical recycling and to ensure that carbon remains in the plastic and is not released into the environment.
It notes that plastic cannot be indefinitely recycled mechanically without reducing its properties and quality and that not all types of plastic can be recycled mechanically. Chemical recycling could therefore be a complementary solution to mechanical recycling when the latter is not suitable for plastic recovery because it is too degraded, contaminated or complex.
The report acknowledges that chemical recycling can play a role in closing the materials loop and the abandonment of disposal and recovery operations, but emphasises that, from an environmental and economic point of view, the best option for reducing plastic pollution is to invest in reduction and reuse solutions and to ensure that no plastic escapes the loop [of the circular economy] via plastic to fuels.
According to Zero Waste Europe, allowing plastic to be considered as a raw material for fuels risks creating a gap in EU legislation on climate and the circular economy.
Moreover, in its circular economy policy, the EU should keep in mind that chemical recycling is not yet a mature technology.
In order to have an adequate policy framework, the report recommends amending EU waste legislation as follows:
. Develop a clear definition of chemical recycling that excludes any operation that does not result in the production of a new plastic.
. Only processes with a lower carbon footprint than the production of plastic from virgin raw materials can be classified as chemical recycling.
. Chemical recycling should be used to process degraded and contaminated plastics, but never plastics from selective waste collection.
. Establish verification systems to ensure that chemical recycling produces plastics and plastic raw materials; facilities approved for chemical recycling should not produce fuel as primary production.
. EU funding should only be allowed for operations to transform plastics into plastic chemical products.
. In order to avoid competition with mechanical recycling, but also to differentiate from recovery and disposal operations, a new level should be added to the waste hierarchy for material recovery operations from mixed waste that is currently burned or buried. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)