The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) says that priority must be given to mechanical recycling of plastic waste. In a recent position paper on chemical recycling, the association stressed that the use of chemical recycling processes needed careful consideration and that well-informed, market-based policies were needed to ensure that chemical recycling "complements, rather than competes with, traditional recycling methods".
Mechanical recycling must remain the preferred method on a large scale, while chemical recycling should only be used for hard-to-recycle plastics at the end of their life, the world recycling industry association said.The industry organisation described chemical recycling as a nascent technology and said that it was "essential to exercise caution and establish an appropriate policy framework together with the introduction of a harmonised definition of chemical recycling that excludes fuel production".
Chemical recycling processes were extremely energy intensive and some produced more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than were released in the primary production of fossil-based plastics, said BIR.
The organisation's new position paper follows just a few months after the organisation's policy statement on extended producer responsibility (EPR) which was published in November of last year....
