How chemical recycling supports the circular economy

The circular economy aims to minimise health-injurious waste and maximise sustainable resources by re-capturing the base materials from “waste,” and repurposing them to create climate-improved products.

Recycling plays a crucial role in closing the loop and reducing our dependence on virgin resources. Traditional mechanical recycling has long been used to process various waste materials, but it has significant limitations. Chemical recycling can enhance the near-term possibilities by delivering “new” raw materials that can be used to create sustainable products and strengthen the circular economy throughout the world.

Pyrolysis is a chemical recycling method in which waste materials are thermally decomposed without oxygen. By heating plastics under controlled conditions, liquid hydrocarbons, carbon black, and gases are produced. Using these end products as feedstocks for the production of new plastics or other materials would not only help climate improvement but would also reduce our dependence on virgin fossil fuels and virgin resources.

There are limitations to mechanical recycling since it can only process waste streams that are clean and homogeneous as well as sorted into very specific categories. The recycling of contaminated, mixed, or degraded materials often results in lower-quality products or is simply diverted to local methane-emitting landfills. Mechanically recycled materials may also lose quality after multiple recycling cycles, as mechanical processes can cause physical and chemical degradation.

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