16 well-known consumer brands publicly support chemical recycling

        On April 13, the Plastic Waste Action Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the "Alliance") of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) announced the publication of a vision and principles document entitled "Chemical Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastics", which encourages the development of new plastic recycling technologies that meet the six key principles of safe, reliable and environmentally sound development.

        To support this position paper, the Alliance also released a new independent life cycle assessment (LCA) study, which shows that chemical recycling of difficult-to-recycle plastic waste can reduce the impact of plastics on the climate compared to incineration for waste-to-energy conversion.

        This "Chemical Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastics" was co-authored by 16 consumer goods companies, including Unilever, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Amcor, Danone, Mars and other brand companies. The document states that chemical recycling can increase the recycling rate of packaging and thus achieve recyclability goals, especially for difficult-to-recycle plastics, such as post-consumer soft films. To ensure that chemical recycling is developed and operated under reliable, safe and environmentally sound conditions, and to help encourage this, the document outlines six key principles:

        1. The source of materials for chemical recycling does not include materials that are practically feasible and have been scaled through mechanical recycling.

        2. Traceability: Accurately track recycled content using reliable mass balance protocols.

        3. Process yield: Maximize the use of chemical recycling to produce plastics, without prioritizing the production of other materials (such as waxes) and fuels.

        4. Environmental impact: In comparable systems, the life cycle impact of chemically recycled plastics on the climate can be reliably demonstrated to be lower than that of virgin plastics.

        5. Claims about chemical recycling should be credible and transparent.

        6. Health and safety: Emission pollution generated by chemical recycling processes must be safely managed.

        Barry Parkin, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars, said: “Chemical recycling is an important complement to mechanical recycling as it can recycle large volumes of flexible packaging into food-grade packaging. This study shows that chemical recycling has a much lower carbon footprint than the current lifespan of flexible packaging.”

        Colin Kerr, Packaging Director at Unilever, added: “As we continue to reduce the use of virgin plastics, new technologies such as chemical recycling can help increase recycling rates and increase the availability of food-grade recycled materials. The six principles and the Consumer Goods Forum’s work on life cycle assessments are key to ensuring this is achieved in a safe and environmentally friendly way.”

        Llorenç Milà i Canals, Head of the Secretariat of the UN Environment Programme’s Life Cycle Initiative, said: “When evaluating technologies such as chemical recycling of plastics, it is critical to consider all potential environmental impacts across the lifecycle of production and consumption systems. Specific challenges for relatively new technologies, including the chemical composition of facility emissions, emissions and waste, and the need for additional pollution control equipment and management, should be part of the assessment. Life cycle assessments are standardised tools for achieving impartiality, ensuring the necessary review by experts and interested parties; the Consumer Goods Forum has initiated a very useful process to shed light on many of the aspects in this report.”

        “Packaging reduction and reuse should be prioritised, recognising the limitations of the technology, and the report presents industry’s view on the role that chemical pyrolysis can play in the transition to a circular economy for plastics, as well as key principles and positions,” added Sander Defruyt, Head of the New Plastics Economy at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.