The clear advantage of chemical recycling – as seen in the linked Agilyx headline – is that there are no issues with product cleanliness, etc., to get the material back into the cycle. As the polymers are essentially destroyed in the pyrolysis process and then reused as a feedstock in the traditional polymer production process, the rigors of sorting and cleaning for a mechanical recycling alternative are not needed. From a food contact perspective, chemical recycling is the easiest way to close the loop. What we are seeing in the headlines, however, is still “proof of concept” stuff and there remain plenty of challenges with logistics and/or proof of custody with the feedstocks that are flowing back to the ethylene unit, as well as how much recycling credit is appropriate, given that roughly half of the recycled feedstock does not end up as a polymer.
We are unconvinced that the chemical (advanced) recycling proponents should be pushing the “recycled content” button as aggressively as they push the plastic waste disposal button as it is likely that chemical recycling could do far more to help end the plastic waste issue than to increase recycled content and ultimately this might be better. See our most recent ESG report linked here for more on this.