The CGF's Coalition of Action on Plastic Waste has published an independent scientific study that it says demonstates that chemical recycling could reduce the climate impact of plastic compared with waste-to-energy incineration.
The Consumer Goods Forum's (CGF) Plastic Waste Coalition of Action has published "Chemical Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastics," a paper that encourages the development of new plastics recycling technologies that meet six key principles for credible, safe and environmentally sound development. In support of this position paper, the coalition also has published an independent life cycle assessment (LCA) study that shows the chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle plastic could reduce the climate impact of plastic when compared with waste-to-energy incineration.
Guided by the global commitment led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and in line with the newly announced UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, the coalition says it is committed to the growth of the circular economy, having launched its full set of Golden Design Rules for plastic packaging and developing a framework for extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs. The coalition says it also is working to encourage recycling innovation, including chemical recycling to complement the growing mechanical recycling capacity.
In the area of chemical recycling, the coalition says it has established a set of principles for the safe scaling of pyrolysis-based chemical recycling. According to the paper it has released, chemical recycling could increase packaging recycling rates, enabling recyclability targets to be met, specifically for hard-to-recycle plastics, such as postconsumer flexible film. To ensure that chemical recycling is developed and operated under “credible, safe and environmentally sound conditions,” the paper outlines what the coalition says are six key principles related to the technology’s complementarity with mechanical recycling, material traceability, process yields and environmental impact, health and safety and claims.
CGF members say they welcome feedback and engagement on this study and its broader work within the Plastic Waste Coalition of Action.
Barry Parkin, chief sustainability officer of Mars Inc. says, "Chemical recycling is a critical complement to mechanical recycling as it will allow large quantities of flexible packaging to be recycled into food-grade packaging. This study demonstrates that chemical recycling has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the current end of life of flexible packaging."
"As we continue to reduce the use of virgin plastic, new technologies such as chemical recycling can help drive up recycling rates and increase the availability of food-grade recycled materials,” Colin Kerr, packaging director, Unilever, adds. “The principles and life cycle assessment work from The Consumer Goods Forum is key to ensuring this can happen in a safe and environmentally sound way."
Llorenç Milà i Canals, head of the Life Cycle Initiative Secretariat, United Nations Environmental Programme, says, "It is crucial to consider all potential environmental impacts across the life cycle of production and consumption systems when assessing technologies such as chemical recycling of plastics. A specific challenge with relatively new technologies is including the chemical composition of discharges, emissions and wastes from facilities, along with the need for additional pollution control equipment and management; these should form part of the assessment. Life cycle assessment is the standardized tool to do just that, assuring the necessary scrutiny by experts and interested parties; the Consumer Goods Forum has initiated a very useful process to shed light on many of these aspects in this report.”
"Recognizing that reduction and reuse of packaging should be prioritized, and recognizing the limitations of the technology, the paper puts forward the industries' position on what role pyrolysis CR could play in the transition to a circular economy for plastics and what key principles and boundary conditions it should adhere to,” Sander Defruyt, lead, New Plastics Economy, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, adds.
The coalition commissioned Chicago-based Sphera to do an independent study looking at the topic of climate change impact. The study was peer-reviewed throughout the process by a panel of experts from U.N. Environmental Programme, Northwestern University and Eunomia. The study provides a life cycle impact assessment and compares conventional plastics produced from fossil fuels and incinerated at end of life with chemically recycled plastic in a circular system.
The study's findings demonstrate that chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle mixed plastic waste could reduce the climate impact of plastic when compared with waste-to-energy incineration. Specifically, the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of flexible consumer packaging made from postuse plastic through pyrolysis-based chemical recycling and recycled at end of life is 43 percent lower than plastic films manufactured from fossil fuels and disposed of through incineration at end of life.
Additional details on the findings of the LCA can be found in the Technical Report and the Non-Technical Summary.
However, some nongovernmental organizations have expressed skepticism about chemical recycling, including GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), Berkeley, California, particularly when the technology is used to produce fuels. The organization says these technologies are “falsely marketed as circular, climate-friendly and sustainable” and present “environmental and health drawbacks” that “outweigh any supposed benefits” because they in part produce poor-quality fuels, exacerbate climate change, produce toxic air emissions and byproducts and perpetuate overproduction of plastic.
GAIA refers to chemical recycling as “an industry greenwash term used to refer to various plastic-to-fuel and plastic-to-plastic technologies,” adding, “Although these processes aim to turn plastic into liquids or gases which could be used to make new plastic, the end products are usually burned in practice. Technological variants of this process include pyrolysis, solvolysis and depolymerization. However, regardless of the label, the technology is plastic-to-fuel, aka plastic incineration, if the end products are burned.”
Convenience is among the five principles to consider, says recycling technology provider.
The Tomra Recycling business unit of Norway-based Tomra Group has issued a white paper identifying common traits of extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs that are designed to boost recycling rates.
Saying EPR “has the power to accelerate society’s shift toward a more circular economy,” Tomra says it prepared its 30-page report to serve “as a detailed guide for policymakers who design or develop EPR schemes, offering a multi-faceted perspective and practical insights to help achieve greater performance.”
Tomra has identified these five design principles in its report: 1) circularity, which incentivizes eco-design and uses reliable measurement protocols; 2) performance, which includes a well-defined scope, clear roles and responsibilities, and comprehensive targets that scale up over time; 3) convenience and user-friendly systems that increase the volumeof materials collected and processed effectively; 4) producer responsibility, which establishes clear rules for the management of discarded packaging; and 5) system integrity, which Tomra says ensures transparency and compliance to support the achievement of targets.
“Tomra’s first-hand experience in numerous markets on all continents has taught us which methods can be used to successfully address the challenge of managing post-consumer packaging waste, and which combinations work best,” says Wolfgang Ringel, a senior vice president with Tomra. “In some regions, where effective waste management systems have been established, more needs to be done to encourage the proper collection, sorting and recycling of valuable material that is simply thrown away. Implementing legally defined (in other words, mandatory) obligations covering the use of resources, and their responsible handling, is the way forward, as this will result in direct, active climate protection.”
In Asia, EPR initiatives have developed into cross-industry networks – a response to the fact that 80 percent of the plastic in the world’s oceans entered them via Asian waterways, says the equipment provider.
South Africa and Vietnam have recently implemented EPR for packaging, and several states within the United States are currently considering such measures, adds the company.
In Europe, the “robust targets defined in the 2019 Single-Use Plastics Directive have resulted in almost all EU member states introducing legislation on deposit-return systems for beverage containers that will be applied by 2029, says the vendor of sorting equipment and reverse vending machines.
“The implementation of EPR legislation is a transformative measure to improve both the quality and quantity of the resources that get recycled, thereby supporting the acceleration to a circular economy,” Tomra states.
The company says it will showcase various products, including the VAZ single-shaft shredder and its VEZ 3200.
Germany-based Vecoplan will be exhibiting at IFAT 2022, a trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management that will take place in Munich May 30-June 3. Vecoplan says it will display a fully revamped version of its VAZ shredder at its booth, 270 M2.
Vecoplan says the VAZ single-shaft shredder has a modular structure that makes it the right solution for a wide range of applications.
The company also will exhibit its VRZ series shredder, which it says is designed for demanding applications and requires little maintenance. The key feature of this double-shaft shredder is its rotor. Instead of conventional cutting tools, it has sickle-shaped teeth that are designed to safely break up and shred bulky and soiled materials, Vecoplan says. The range of possible applications includes domestic and commercial waste, postconsumer waste and postindustrial waste. It can also pre-shred waste wood.
Vecoplan also will showcase its VEZ 3200. This shredder for the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) market is a single-shaft machine. It is equipped with an almost maintenance-free HiTorc drive that is insensitive to extraneous material. The VEZ can handle difficult material flows with high impurity content in both pre-shredding and single-stage shredding, according to the company.
IFAT also will see Vecoplan presenting systems for mechanical processing and material handling. The company says it supplies its customers with individual machines and systems for numerous mechanical processing procedures and that it delivers “complex, complete plants.” The company says it optimizes material flows and matches the components, achieving high energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness along the entire processing line.
To date, the council has awarded more than $370,000 in scholarships.
The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Arlington, Virginia, Women’s Council has announced eight scholarship recipients. The scholarships total $60,000.
“We are thrilled to celebrate NWRA’s 60th anniversary by giving away $60,000 in scholarships,” says Tammy Holtzman, chair of the Women’s Council Scholarship Committee and district manager at Waste Connections of Canada. “This year’s pool of candidates was exceptional, and this year’s class of scholars are wonderful examples of those dedicated to our industry.”
Brittany Anderson – Machinex Technologies, Plessisville, Canada;
Brenda Forsythe – Waste Connections of Canada, Vaughan, Ontario;
Emily Nisly – Nisly Brothers Inc., Hutchinson, Kansas;
Brett Smith – Vogel Disposal Services, Mars, Pennsylvania;
Dawn Thibodaux – Waste Connections of Canada; and,
Vanessa Vogel – Vogel Disposal Services.
In 2007, the NWRA Women’s Council established an educational scholarship program to assist qualified individuals in their pursuit of an education that will lead to productive careers in the environmental industry. All NWRA member company employees and their dependents are eligible to apply. To date, $375,000 has been awarded.
Scholarship funds are made possible by the generous donations of companies and fundraising activities such as the Split the Pot Raffle. For more information about the NWRA Women’s Council, click here.
Through the program, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will conduct heat-related workplace inspections.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) designed to protect millions of workers from heat illness and injuries. This marks the first time that heat illness and injuries have been the subjects of a National Emphasis Program, with OSHA planning to conduct heat-related workplace inspections. The NEP took effect April 8 and remains in effect for three years unless canceled or extended by a superseding directive.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Vice President Kamala Harris announced the new enforcement program at Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 Training Center in Philadelphia.
Heat illness affects thousands of indoor and outdoor workers each year and can lead to death, according to a news release about the program. The Department of Labor says reducing workplace heat-related illnesses and injuries is a top priority, and this NEP is a way to immediately improve enforcement and compliance efforts while continuing long-term work to establish a heat illness prevention rule. These efforts are part of a larger, interagency Biden-Harris administration effort to protect workers and communities from extreme heat and rising temperatures resulting from climate change.
“Tragically, the three-year average of workplace deaths caused by heat has doubled since the early 1990s,” Walsh says. “These extreme heat hazards aren’t limited to outdoor occupations, the seasons or geography. From farmworkers in California to construction workers in Texas and warehouse workers in Pennsylvania, heat illness—exacerbated by our climate’s rising temperatures—presents a growing hazard for millions of workers. This enforcement program is another step towards our goal of a federal heat standard. Through this work, we’re also empowering workers with knowledge of their rights, especially the right to speak up about their safety without fear of retaliation.”
As part of the program, OSHA will initiate inspections in more than 70 high-risk industries in indoor and outdoor work settings when the National Weather Service has issued a heat warning or advisory for a local area. On days when the heat index is 80 F or higher, OSHA inspectors and compliance assistance specialists will engage in proactive outreach and technical assistance to help stakeholders keep workers safe on the job. Inspectors will look for and address heat hazards during inspections, regardless of whether the industry is targeted in the NEP, according to the news release.
OSHA’s area offices will engage in outreach to unions, employers in target industries and other organizations committed to advancing protections for underserved workers. The agency’s On-Site Consultation Program, a free and confidential health and safety consulting program for small- and medium-sized businesses, will assist employers in developing strategic approaches for addressing heat-related illnesses and injuries in workplaces, the Department of Labor says.
Last fall, OSHA published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to initiate the rulemaking process toward a federal heat standard.
As part of OSHA’s continued work to reduce workplace heat illnesses and fatalities, the agency will hold a public stakeholder meeting May 3 to discuss OSHA’s ongoing activities to protect workers from heat-related hazards, including the Heat Illness Prevention Campaign, compliance assistance activities and enforcement efforts. Those interested can register here.
Recycling Today Media Group has reached out to OSHA to learn more about the industries being targeted.