Welcome to the Solutions Database,
a guide to technologies, strategies, and best practices for reducing plastic waste

Choose your solution

Eliminate plastic

Minimize plastic

Reuse models

Paper

Compostable

Glass

Metal

More recyclable formats

Enhance recyclability

Bio-based content

Mechanically recycled content

Chemically recycled content

Use Chemically Recycled Content

Chemical recycling (CR) is the broad term used to describe a range of technologies capable of recycling plastics using chemical processes, as opposed to strictly mechanical ones. CR has the potential to process plastics such as mixed rigids, films, multi-material and laminated plastics. CR technologies could therefore effectively complement mechanical recycling (MR) in achieving a circular economy (1). By turning plastic waste back into base chemicals and feedstocks, some types of CR can yield virgin-quality feedstock (as well as oils for use as fuel), that can be suitable for food-grade packaging. In order to successfully scale chemical recycling, users should not overlook the need to secure supply and grow collection.

However, CR technology is still evolving, and available CR content is likely to be in extremely short supply over the near term, if not longer (2). It will likely take a few years before the supply of CR content reaches a scale and consistency that brand owners can rely on for their procurement strategies. In order for the business model to scale, it is important that the following business case elements are further developed, including:

Clarity on the feedstock and supply sources which CR technology can accept in real-world conditions and still produce high quality outputs (i.e., types of polymers, level of contamination, material mix
Validating that the end-to-end CO2 life cycle is beneficial relative to virgin plastic to ease concerns that CR will compromise climate change objectives
The yield of plastic-to-plastic chemical recycling must be sufficiently high to ensure a compelling recycling narrative exists. If it is too low then the process may lack credibility as a "recycling" solution.

Comparison of chemical and mechanical recycling packaging technologies

CR can be broken down into three fields:

Solvent-based purification is a process through which plastic is dissolved in a solvent and a series of purification steps are undertaken to separate the polymer from additives and contaminants. The resulting output is the precipitated polymer, which remains unaffected by the process and can be reformulated into plastic. Since solvent-based purification does not change the constitution of the polymer itself, there are ongoing discussions as to whether this technology should in fact be defined as mechanical rather than chemical recycling, or as a separate class altogether.
Chemical depolymerization yields either single monomer molecules or shorter fragments, often called oligomers. This process can provide recycled content for PET.
Thermal depolymerization of which the two main processes are pyrolysis and gasification: processes that convert polymers into simpler molecules. The products of pyrolysis or gasification can integrate into existing chemical processing supply chains. These processes can provide recycled content for polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) packaging.

Best Practice

Ambition level: Chemically recycled content is not widely available to brands and retailers today, but this could change in the next 5-10 years if the sector scales up and technology is further developed. In the mid-term, securing CR content largely relies on partnering with a specific provider to build a CR plant and be the off-taker.

Applicability to different packaging materials: Depending on the specific type of CR technology used, the resultant feedstock can be virgin quality, potentially implying applicability to almost any plastic packaging format. Thermal depolymerization effectively produces oil that can be refined into naphtha and used to produce virgin plastic feedstock. The supply of CR is likely to be limited in the near term, such that a range of strategies should be pursued to increase recycled content in packaging, including using more mechanically recycled content.

Design for recyclability: While some CR technologies can handle mixed materials, some technologies are sensitive to the presence of impurities. Eliminating the use of PVC or PVDC from packaging or from feedstock supplies may be necessary to help advance CR for other polymers for packaging. The development of design guides and commodity bale specifications should go hand in hand with any strategy to advance CR.

Costs

CR costs cannot yet be asserted with full confidence, owing to the relative immaturity of the technology and the lack of existing commercial operations. CR recycled content costs depend on key cost factors such as scale, yield, energy intensity, and separations costs. CR recycling methods may also have higher per ton capital costs over virgin due to the relative complexity of the plants, metallurgy requirements, and number of ultimate process steps.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Further research is needed to fully evaluate the GHG implications of CR content vs virgin and mechanical. Early studies suggest that plastic-to-plastic chemical conversion has high energy requirements, leading to GHG emissions that may be double that of MR, and may be ~10% higher than landfilling and producing new virgin plastic — albeit ~20% lower than that of plastic that is incinerated. However, estimates for CR GHG emissions vary greatly because the technologies are still in the early stages of industrial-scale use, and on account of the wide scope for differing assumptions concerning energy use (3).

Key Benefits

Produces pure products: Some CR technologies, such as pyrolysis and gasification, enable the production of high-quality end products – i.e., new plastics and chemicals – that can be used as fossil-based feedstock equivalents. That means pyrolysis and gasification generated feedstock can be used in applications that demand high-quality packaging, including the food sector, and may be able to make up 100% of a package’s plastic requirements without decreasing quality.

Helps recycle hard-to-recycle plastics: CR complements MR in that it may be able to be utilized to process certain plastic waste streams that MR cannot. More work is needed to evaluate the full potential of CR in processing various types of feedstocks is needed. Despite these potential benefits, companies need to consider CR content very carefully given the unknown factors of cost, availability, yield, and GHG impacts.

How to make it work

Consider the role of commitments in securing supply"), Offtake agreements for future supply will likely be necessary to provide investor confidence and will provide an important demand signal to the industry.
Follow an established certification scheme"), Certifications are important to ensure the CR product being bought is credible and that any claims made about it are robust, legal and accurate.
Ensure any CR content purchased uses adequate mass balance certification protocols. See, for example, International Sustainability and Carbon Certification PLUS (ISCC PLUS), Roundtable for Sustainable Biomass, or REDCert. Be sure that chemically recycled plastic is right for you The complexities and varieties of chemical recycling mean there are many subtle nuances which will determine whether a given form of CR technology is appropriate for your company’s needs and packaging goals. For more global research, see:
Eunomia’s review of available information on different CR technologies, and assessments of their performance, feasibility, and how they could fit into existing waste management systems.
CEFIC’s study of the GHG emissions associated with CR.
Closed Loop Partners’ investor and partners roadmap for boosting CR capacity.

Enabling system conditions

As described above, more research is needed to fully understand the end-to-end CO2 life cycle, economics, process yields, and feedstock tolerance. In addition, the following items also need consideration and development:

Common accounting The creation and adoption of a set of rules that codifies the technical details about which plastics can be recycled using CR, and which can be produced using CR-generated feedstock, may assist the growth in CR technologies.
Regulation support A well-developed legal framework setting out whether CR facilities producing fuel should be treated as recycling facilities; agreements from regulators that CR content is food safe and can be counted as “recycled content”; and regulations aimed at keeping hazardous contaminants out of the CR stream and/or ensuring they have been fully removed from plastic waste during CR processing, are key discussion points that need to be resolved to enable more widespread adoption of CR content in food packaging.
State-sponsored R&D Public sector co-funding could help accelerate R&D partnerships and address the higher risk areas and stages of CR development
New feedstock collection and cleaning Successful collection and aggregation of quality feedstocks will be critical to providing the scale needed to run CR facilities. In addition, CR will need to process both post-industrial and post-consumer materials to fully realize a circular economy for packaging. "Additional investment will be needed to ensure the full suite of materials to feed CR is collected at a level to support a capital investment (i.e. post-consumer film collection needs more scale).
Collection and Logistics CR plants need large volumes of consistent, economically feasible feedstock to be viable. In order to process the difficult to recycle materials, those items must be segregated and sent to the chemical recycler at relatively low cost and high quality, in turn necessitating widespread logistical planning and growth in local and regional collection networks.

Examples and case studies

Mitsubishi Chemical: In Japan, through a venture with Mitsubishi Chemical announced in December, Kirin is developing a commercially viable process for the large-scale depolymerization of polyester bottles into monomers that can be turned into polymers again. Kirin would use the resulting product to help meet its recycling target of at least 50% recycled plastics in its products by 2027. Link

Welcome to the Solutions Database, a guide to technologies, strategies, and best practices for reducing plastic waste

Choose your solution

Use Chemically Recycled Content

References and Further Reading

Welcome to the Solutions Database,
a guide to technologies, strategies, and best practices for reducing plastic waste