WWF announces chemical recycling position amid unknown environmental and social outcomes fears

03 Feb 2022 --- World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has announced its position on chemical recycling, labeling it “an emerging technology with unknown environmental and social outcomes.” The NGO has released ten principles to help decision-makers determine if and how chemical recycling should be pursued as a plastic waste mitigation tactic.

The Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles – representing part of WWF’s No Plastic in Nature vision – are as follows:

1. Chemical recycling should not divert resources from efforts to implement existing, proven approaches to address the global plastic pollution problem.
2. Chemical recycling processes should demonstrate a reduced carbon footprint compared with virgin resin production.
3. Chemical recycling must not negatively impact local communities and must demonstrate their operation is safe for human health.
4. Safeguarding nature – chemical recycling technologies must not adversely impact our air, water, and environment.
5. The use of chemical recycling should complement existing waste management systems and not compete for feedstocks with mechanical recycling.
6. Plastic waste streams should be matched to the most environmentally efficient technology available.
7. Only material-to-material applications of chemical recycling should be considered recycling and part of a circular economy.
8. Chemical recycling systems should not transform recyclable material into non-recyclable material.
9. Claims made regarding chemical recycling should be true, clear, and relevant.
10. Plastic recycled with chemical recycling technologies should be verified with chain of custody.

PackagingInsights discusses the emergence of chemical recycling with Alix Grabowski, WWF’s director of plastic and material science. According to Rabobank, investment in these technologies continues to increase worldwide, despite criticism from NGOs and media reports challenging their cost-effectiveness and environmental performance.

Rabobank monitored “plenty of activity” in chemical recycling last year, including traceability solution trials, new plant announcements, partnerships, acquisitions and equity stakes. There are also new players entering the industry, especially in Asia.“For a technology like chemical recycling to be part of a sustainable material management system, we must carefully look at how it’s designed and implemented and whether or not it offers environmental benefits over the status quo, adheres to strong social safeguards and truly contributes to advancing our circular economy. These principles are designed to do exactly that,” outlines Grabowski. 

Reduce and reuse over recycling
While there is a need for stronger regulatory frameworks, innovation and funding mechanisms to improve plastic waste management, there are existing solutions to the crisis, argues Grabowski.

“Even as technologies advance, we can’t recycle our way out of the growing plastic waste crisis. Instead of just focusing on recycling, we should prioritize strategies like reducing our overall single-use plastic consumption and scaling up reuse,” he stresses.

These strategies are a higher priority in the waste management hierarchy, he adds, and any companies pursuing chemical recycling strategies should – as a priority – be already investing in and acting on these upstream solutions.

Scale-up risks
Chemical recycling (also referred to as advanced or molecular recycling) refers to chemical, thermochemical, and combustion processes whereby plastic waste undergoing treatment is turned back into its chemical building blocks, enabling waste material to be recycled into plastic, including for food-grade applications.

Although such technologies present a solution to typically hard-to-recycle plastics – like plastic films and mixed waste – Grabowski says there is a risk that chemical recycling’s scale-up could incentivize business-as-usual over investment in more transformational, upstream solutions like reduction and reuse.Reuse and reduction are higher priorities in the waste management hierarchy, stresses WWF, and any companies pursuing chemical recycling strategies should be investing in these upstream solutions.

“This [scale-up] is a real risk, and we already see some in the industry focusing their goals and strategies on maintaining the status quo on design and delivery methods and betting on chemical recycling for progress.”

“Second, the potential threat to mechanical recycling is about scale and competition. If sufficient safeguards are not put in place, it’s very possible that chemical recycling could compete with mechanical recycling for inputs, as once a plant is built and operational, it will need a consistent supply of plastic waste, while the supply will ideally shrink as upstream solutions that prevent plastic waste come online.”

“Furthermore, businesses don’t have direct control over where their products ultimately go [mechanical or chemical recycling], which could also affect the availability of mechanically-recycled material.”

Meanwhile, recycled plastic prices are skyrocketing worldwide as industries fight for market control to boost their environmental sustainability credentials.

Lacking credible information
While more data is slowly becoming available on the environmental performance of specific chemical recycling technologies, there is still a serious lack of credible, third-party reviewed information in this space, adds Grabowski.Alix Grabowski, director of plastic and material science at WWF.

“Furthermore, besides technological performance, ultimately environmental and social outcomes also very much depend on how these technologies are implemented, and this too remains unclear. Today, we have serious questions and concerns about all types of chemical recycling.”

WWF’s principles lay out its position that chemical recycling is not a “silver bullet” solution but rather an unproven set of technologies, which might contribute to circularity for plastic materials that cannot be eliminated, replaced by reuse, or recycled traditionally.

If it is to be a part of the solution, chemical recycling must demonstrate clear environmental and social benefits and contribute to creating fundamentally more circular systems, the NGO stresses.

By Joshua Poole