CHEMICAL RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY AND ITS BENEFITS

by Barbara Ciesielska, PR Specialist at Clariter

When thinking about plastic recycling, most people think about mechanical recycling, the most well-known and established recycling technology. This technology recycles an old plastic product into a new plastic product.

Advanced or chemical recycling is a newer technology that complements mechanical recycling since it can recycle a wider range of plastics, often not accepted by mechanical technology. There are several ongoing projects in the plastics and recycling industries, attempting to make advanced recycling more common.

According to Yariv Eldar, VP Business Development at Clariter, advanced recycling comprises processes that turn plastic polymers into shorter chain (smaller) molecules. This allows for materials to be reprocessed in various ways that are not limited to new plastics production, as is the case in mechanical recycling. This transformation can be achieved with pyrolysis, depolymerization, or gasification, all of which avoid the burning of plastics.

Dr Daria Frączak, Scientific Director at Clariter, explains that different bodies and regulations offer differing definitions of recycling, with some considering fuel production from waste as recycling, while Barbara Ciesielska, PR Specialist at Clariter others don’t. Some exclude dissolution, and others don’t. European regulations do not define chemical recycling. The Waste Framework Directive defines recycling as any operation that takes waste and makes products, materials, and substances. By this definition, plastic to fuels is not recycling but energy recovery, which is on the same level as incineration – just above landfilling.

The ISO 15270 Standard limits chemical recycling to cracking, gasification, and depolymerisation, excluding dissolution processes, while the American Chemistry Council includes plastic to fuel processes in its definition of advanced recycling.

Chemical recycling allows overcoming the limitations of traditional mechanical recycling and helps the industry push the boundaries of how and where recycled plastics can be used.

Its benefits include:

• Production of high-value consumer and industrial products that are alternatives for fossil-based product

• Decreased dependency on crude oil

• Lower carbon footprint of products

• Reduction in plastic waste, landfilling, and incineration

• An accelerated circular economy that utilises a wider range of waste plastics and higher recycling rates •

Job creation that stimulates the global economy

All this can be achieved while enjoying higher profits due to factors such as long-term fixed costs of raw materials (rather than volatile oil prices), turning valueless waste into valuable raw material, and charging premium prices for sustainable products.