USA | CHEMICAL RECYCLING
Advanced recycling: the policy status in the USA
In this article, the American Chemistry Council provides an update on the many policy initiatives to improve US plastics recycling and its Roadmap to Reuse involving chemical recycling. By Craig Cookson, Senior Director, Recycling and Recovery
To help create a more circular economy for plastics, America’s Plastic Makers have set a goal for 100% of US plastic packaging to be reused, recycled or recovered by 2040. To get there we developed our Roadmap to Reuse which highlights six key areas for plastics makers and the value chain to focus on to help solve our plastic waste challenges. Not surprisingly, smart public policy is an important catalyst and enabler for creating a circular econo- my for plastics and achieving our goals. Our vision of plastics in a circular economy is simple yet bold. After plastic packaging has been used and collected for recycling, many of the typical bottles and containers will be mechanically recycled: ground up and melted into plastic pellets to make new packaging or products, like they are today.
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
Plastics that are more difficult to recycle me- chanically, such as pouches and tubes, will be “reverse manufactured” using advanced recycling technologies, an umbrella term for various tech- nologies that use chemistry to break down post- use plastics into basic raw materials for remanufac- turing. Advanced recycling can produce new virgin-like materials used to make products including plastics and chemicals, polymer addi- tives, waxes, lubricants, coatings, and many other products of chemistry. Advanced recycling technologies can overcome most technical limitations of mechanical recycling and help meet the growing demand for recycled resin. For example, advanced technologies enable the recycling of a wider range of post-use plastics,
Main image: Advanced recycling can produce new virgin-like materials
May/June 2021 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 13
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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