Chemical Recycling of Plastic Gets a Boost in 18 US States—but is it Recycling?
hubie writes:
Some state laws allow incentives to turn plastics into fuels as well as other plastics:
In the US, people are asking their elected leaders to reduce plastic pollution.
To that end, environmental advocates are seeking policies to reduce the use of single-use plastics such as beverage bottles and snack bags. They point out that less than 10% of plastic used in the US ends up recycled.
Meanwhile, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the major trade group for the chemical industry, is offering another plan-policies to promote chemically recycling plastics by breaking them down into molecular building blocks for reuse. [...]
"Policy makers are very interested" in advanced recycling, says Craig Cookson, senior director of plastics sustainability for the ACC. "Their constituents are coming to them and saying they want to see greater amounts and more types of plastics recycled in their communities."
[...] Industry effort to promote the new state laws "is all about public relations," says Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a group that seeks to end single-use plastic pollution through the reduction and reuse of the material. Producers are trying to acknowledge that plastic pollution is a problem while preserving business, she says.
Instead of working to generate less plastic waste, companies are seeking a technical fix that will let them keep producing-and reaping huge profits from-plastic, says Renee Sharp, the strategic adviser for Safer States, an alliance of health and safety advocates that tracks environmental legislation in states.
"We're seeing legislators who think that they're actually doing something that's good for the environment, but they have bought the industry line. They don't really understand what these technologies are," Sharp tells C&EN. Backers of the state bills include Democrats and Republicans alike.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.