Improved recycling has multiple benefits, including reducing the need for virgin production, reducing downcycling (in which a material is recycled into a lower-value end use), and reducing plastic waste.
Among the many innovation initiatives under way to improve recycling are several highlights:
The American chemical company Eastman has developed a depolymerisation process – in which plastics are broken down into their basic chemical components – to recycle PET plastic, which is used mainly to make drinks bottles. After completing pilot testing at its site in Tennessee, commercial operation of the plant began in late 2019.
In late 2019, BP announced the formation of a consortium to hasten the commercialisation of BP Infinia, a technology to recycle opaque and difficult-to-recycle PET plastic waste into virgin-quality plastics. A pilot plant is planned to come online in the United States.
Norwegian company Quantafuel, with backing from companies such as the major chemical producer BASF, has developed a technology that uses heat-based processes (pyrolysis) to convert mixed plastic waste into synthetic fuels. Its first commercial plant started operating in late 2019 in Denmark and will process 18 kt of plastic waste per year.
In 2019, PureCycle completed a successful first run of its process to recycle PP plastic (used in various applications including packaging, clothing and piping) into virgin-quality plastic, using a solvent to purify the plastic. Its first commercial-scale plant is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2022 in Ohio.
Chemical production innovation is also under way, including on integrating hydrogen and CCUS technologies. For example, multiple companies – including Feriberia, Yara, Enaex and Balance Agri-Nutrients – are developing projects to produce ammonia from solar and wind energy, with plans to scale up by 2030. In 2020, Canada’s Alberta Carbon Trunk Line CCS project began operations, and its activities include transporting CO2 from Nutrien’s fertiliser plant for permanent storage.
A number of projects in China are also demonstrating CCS in chemical production, including Sinopec’s Zhongyuan pilot project operating at a fertiliser plant, a pilot project operating at a Xinjiang Dunhua methanol plant, and Yangchang Petroleum’s demonstration project under construction at a coal-to-chemical plant.
While policies on plastic use and disposal are accelerating, stronger policy ambition on chemical manufacturing is particularly needed
Policies targeting increased plastic recycling and other material efficiency strategies, such as product reuse and life extensions, have advanced significantly in recent years.
There has been a considerable increase in policies restricting single-use plastics, with more than 60 countries introducing bans or levies in the past five or so years. For example, in March 2019 the European Union approved a ban on single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers by 2021, and a requirement for plastic bottles to contain 30% recycled content by 2030. Canada announced a similar ban in June 2019 that would come into effect in 2021 at the earliest, and 34 African nations have adopted bans on plastic bag use.
While growing concern about plastic waste in the oceans is a key motivator of these policies, China’s 2018 ban on imports of most waste plastics and other materials also likely had an influence, considering that it had previously been processing a considerable portion of global recyclable waste.
As of 2016, Korea, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Norway and Finland all had landfill restrictions in place, which appears to be associated with higher rates of plastic waste-to-energy production and recycling. In fact, in 2016 plastic recycling overtook landfilling in Europe for the first time. Korea and Japan had achieved this feat several years earlier, with landfill rates in each country being in the single digits.
The Ecodesign Directive developed by the European Commission provides guidance on reducing the environmental footprint of consumer products in their various lifecycle phases. There have also been calls to ban consumption of certain plastics, particularly for single-use purposes and for which substitutes exist.
There has been considerably less advancement in policies to reduce chemical production emissions, although a few major ones are notable. For example, the EU Emissions Trading System, which covers the chemical sector, is ramping up ambition, with faster declines in allowance availability planned for 2021-2030 (phase 4). Meanwhile, India’s PAT Scheme, a market-based mechanism to improve energy efficiency, has covered chlor-alkali and fertilisers since its first cycle that began in 2012 and the rest of petrochemicals since its fourth cycle that began in 2018.
Accelerated policy progress covering all regions will be needed to get the chemical production subsector on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario.