(POL) DOES CHEMICAL RECYCLING ACTUALLY WORK?

New York state Sen. Pete Harckham (D) speaks on the state Capitol on May 28, 2025, in Albany, New York. | Kena Betancur/AP

NEW YORK — A thorny question is dividing Democrats in Albany and thwarting legislative efforts to reduce toxic plastic waste: Does chemical recycling actually work?

As New York lawmakers gear up for what is poised to be another heated battle over plastics legislation in 2027, the industry is pushing for such operations to be part of the solution to the plastic waste problem.

But anti-plastics advocates say they are a distraction to the actual solution of reducing plastic waste, and chemical recycling facilities are falling victim to economic and technological challenges.

Chemical recycling “is a farce,” said Democratic state Sen. Pete Harckham, sponsor of the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. “These [facilities] are an environmental hazard. They don’t do what they say.”

Harckham’s legislation mandates ambitious reductions in single-use plastic packaging, along with shifting the cost of waste management from taxpayers to packaging producers. It would also ban a range of toxic chemicals from being added to plastic products, including phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS and polystyrene.

But industry groups have come out in force in opposition to PRRIA. One of their chief gripes is that it would bar chemical recycling processes from falling under the definition of “recycling” unlike other proposals that have the industry’s support. Those bills include the Affordable Waste Reduction Act, sponsored by Democrats Chantel Jackson in the Assembly and Monica Martinez in the Senate, and a bill that would decrease advanced recycling facilities’ regulatory burden, sponsored by state Sen. Jeremy Cooney and state Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, both Democrats.

“One of our big priorities is to allow competition for advanced recycling [technologies],” Ross Eisenberg, president of America’s Plastic Makers for the American Chemistry Council, said in an interview last fall about PRRIA. Eisenberg argues the bill would raise costs for consumers, particularly due to the way it mandates reductions in single-use packaging.

Chemical recycling, also known as advanced recycling, is an umbrella term for a variety of ways non-mechanical recycling facilities process plastics. The most common technology is pyrolysis, which uses high temperatures and low oxygen to degrade plastic into an oil that can be further refined. Similarly, gasification uses heat to degrade plastic into a gas. There are also solvent-based processes like solvolysis and dissolution, which use chemical reactions to break down plastics.

The competing proposals underscore a lack of consensus among Democrats on what to do about the plastic waste problem that has been growing since China stopped importing certain types of recyclable waste in 2017. Recycling has since become more costly and complicated, found a 2018 report from New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli’s office estimated that local governments outside New York City spent $900 million on collecting and disposing of waste, while the Big Apple’s Department of Sanitation has a budget of $1.97 billion for this year. More of this article (Politico) – link – more like this (chemical recycling) – link – more like this (New York) - link