The exhibit below will come to many as a surprise, and it underlines one of the most significant challenges facing the recycling world. It is the food packagers who want the recycled content, but most food-grade polymer is not easily recycled (mechanically) once it has been in contact with food. Shrink-wrap for example is hard to collect and even harder to clean to a standard that is deemed safe and then hard to regrind because it is thin-film. This is where the polymer industry can really push the benefits of “advanced” chemical recycling as the process can take a mixed and not thoroughly cleaned stream of waste polymers with the recycling process itself (pyrolysis) destroying the contaminants and for the output that gets redirected back to ethylene units an additional shot at 1600-1700 Fahrenheit should remove any fears of contamination. You will not get the pound for pound recycle, but 35% is much better than the numbers suggested in the chart. Plus, in the process, you can destroy and reuse a great deal of plastic waste. See our ACC initiative write-up in yesterday’s ESG and Climate report.
The ACC goal of recovering 100% of packaging polymers is bold but likely necessary to show that its members are focused on a full solution, rather than some sort of halfway step. The goal is broken down as follows: