Plastics makers are touting ‘advanced recycling’ as the solution to the world’s waste crisis. So far, this technology hasn't lived up to the lofty claims of its backers, specialreports learns
Not only is this garbage choking landfills and despoiling oceans, it’s contributing to global warming because it’s made from fossil fuels. At a time when demand for transport fuel is under pressure from government vehicle-efficiency mandates and the rise of electric cars, the oil industry is doubling down on plastics.
As of July, 14 U.S. states had passed these kinds of laws. At least $500 million in public funds has been spent since 2017 on 51 U.S. advanced recycling projects, the environmental group Greenpeace said in a report last year. Boise’s government, for example, has spent at least $736,000 on garbage bags for its program, according to purchase orders and invoices between May 2018 and April 2020 obtained by Reuters through public records requests.
However, the Reuters review found some advanced recycling companies struggling with the same obstacles that have bedeviled traditional recyclers for decades: the expense of collecting, sorting and cleaning plastic trash, and creating end products that can compete on price and quality with fossil fuels or virgin plastic.
A narrower analysis, looking just at the final recycling process and its contribution to global warming, found that pyrolysis scored better than landfilling but was worse than burning plastic in a cement kiln. Pyrolysis has been tried before on plastic. British oil giant BP Plc, German chemical maker BASF SE and U.S. oil company Texaco Inc – now owned by Chevron Corp – all separately dropped plans to scale up waste-to-fuel pyrolysis technologies more than 20 years ago due to technical and commercial problems.
A numerical symbol that commonly appears on plastic packaging to identify the resin out of which the product is made Of two-dozen companies whose projects were reviewed by Reuters, three have gone public in the last year: PureCycle Technologies Inc, Agilyx AS and Pryme B.V. The market value of all has declined since their debuts.
Until her two-year term ended in December, Renewlogy’s Bakaya was the chair of the ACC’s advanced recycling unit.Renewlogy is among a crop of “advanced recycling” startups using heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into new products. REUTERS/George Frey A wheelbarrow full of glass jars containing a murky liquid at Renewlogy. The company says its technology can produce diesel fuel from plastic waste. REUTERS/George Frey
Steve Case, co-founder and former chief executive of AOL Inc, invested $100,000 in PK Clean in 2016, according to a blog he authored on the website of his venture capital firm Revolution. The governor’s office in Utah said it gave a total of $200,000 in grants in 2016 and 2017, while Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development provided $350,000 in loans in 2015 to PK Clean, according to Peter Makowski, acting director of business development for the department.
Benjamin Coates, Renewlogy co-founder and chief technology officer, outside the company’s Salt Lake City facility. REUTERS/George Frey Renewlogy said it shares the Salt Lake City premises with other companies that work on pyrolysis of wood and other waste, and that much of the junk Reuters saw on the back lot belonged to other firms that it declined to name. Renewlogy added that it continues to operate its plant as a testing facility to develop new plastic recycling technologies.
Renewlogy said it would be “starting very small” and would be “validating each step before scaling up.” Bandlow, the Dow spokesperson, said the Hefty EnergyBag program was helping to “transform waste into valuable products.” He declined to respond to questions about the environmental impact of burning plastic in cement kilns.Got a confidential news tip? Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters
Boise officials said they’ve been transparent with the public about the handling of their plastic waste. Haley Falconer, Boise’s sustainability officer, said the city has learned from the setbacks. In hindsight, she said, it would have been better to build a customized recycling program with a local partner so that Boise could control where its waste was going.
Renewlogy touted its technology as capable of handling all types of plastic waste, including takeout containers and cling wrap, things many traditional recyclers won’t touch. But Renewlogy was unable to handle plastic “films,” used to make food packaging and grocery bags, and eventually left the program, the City of Boise told Reuters.
Enerkem said the project was never cancelled, rather “repurposed” to focus on making jet fuel from waste due to high demand for a sustainable product. “At best, the sachets end up in landfill. At worst, they end up as litter in the streets, the waterways and the oceans.”Unilever, which makes Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said publicly it began operating a pilot plant in Indonesia in 2018. But within a year it was clear the technology was not commercially viable, and plans to build a full-scale operation were dropped, two people involved in the program told Reuters.
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