Dive Brief:
- A standards organization has created a new certification for chemical recyclers that want to show “responsible” and transparent operations, a move SCS Standards and Assurance Systems says is the first of its kind.
- SCS recently launched the Certification Standard for Responsible Chemical Recycling, an independent standard meant to shed light on specific aspects of chemical recycling operations and the products the facilities produce.
- The voluntary standard requires companies to meet a range of environmental and social requirements related to waste and wastewater management, process documentation, mass balance calculations and numerous other requirements. It also calls for making such information easily accessible to the general public.
Dive Insight:
SCS says the standard’s strict requirements aim to “build trust in chemical recycling of plastics” amid confusion or wariness over chemical recyclers’ polarizing operations.
“Brands are under real pressure to deliver on recycled-content commitments, and chemical recycling is part of how that gets done," said Victoria Norman, executive director of SCS Standards and Assurance Systems, in a statement.
“Without independent verification, however, the brands that sell these products have had no way to confirm that the chemical recyclers they source from are measuring, monitoring, and reporting their environmental and social impacts honestly and transparently,” she said.
Environmental groups have long criticized the sector for possible environmental and health impacts and the lack of transparency around operations and output.
Yet chemical recycling has support from the U.S. EPA under the Trump administration. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has said the industry could be a strong economic driver.
Circle is a circular economy “neutral convener” that first brought together a variety of stakeholders a few years ago to discuss the process of creating a standard. The group, formerly known as the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, does not advocate for or against chemical recycling, or the range of technologies under the chemical recycling umbrella. Circle’s network includes brands, material producers, recyclers, NGOs and other entities, according to its website.
“The impetus for this was a group of consumer packaged goods companies, petrochemical companies, and chemical recyclers that wanted to ensure that these technologies are operating responsibly," said Dave Ford, cofounder of Circle, in an email to Waste Dive.
The new standard is the result of years of conversations and meetings between stakeholders, which also included input from NGOs, Norman said in an interview with Waste Dive.
After a few years of discussions, SCS Standards took over the process to build the standard itself, plus a parallel certification program, making the process “implementable, auditable and verifiable,” she said.
Most of the stakeholders involved in the process did not want to be named, but Norman said some chemical recyclers like Eastman, Brightmark and Nexus Circular were publicly “part of the exercise.”
The certification system offers three tiers that become gradually more rigorous. The “core” tier calls for companies to meet a list of “foundational requirements” related to management systems, permitting, chain of custody transparency and reporting on social and environmental factors. The “plus” and “trailblazer” tiers add more detailed requirements such as improving from certain baselines and accounting for data related to water stewardship, zero waste and social impact requirements.
The standard also calls for companies to meet operational and environmental obligations that local and state laws often do not require, such as specific community outreach and engagement requirements.
The certification “looks at things like environmental impacts, social impacts, feedstock, chain of custody, so it's trying to be a well-rounded standard that addresses the hot topics regarding chemical recycling,” Norman said.
Norman acknowledged that the voluntary standard will likely require any companies to spend significant time — and in some cases money — to adopt all the required elements. Yet she said several companies have already expressed interest in moving forward.
The standard is rolling out during a time when some chemical recycling projects have recently stopped operating or have significantly revised plans to build new facilities.
In May, chemical recycler Braven Environmental said it would no longer pursue plans to open a pyrolysis facility in Texarkana, Texas. That same month, Freepoint Eco-Systems suspended plans for a facility in Hebron, Ohio, reported Plastics News. State regulators had issued several violation letters related to that plant, and residents and environmental groups had long been protesting the facility.
Beyond Plastics, an environmental group critical of the chemical recycling industry, wrote in a statement that recent facility closures only heighten scrutiny on remaining operators. “Opaque information from the industry leaves a lot of open questions about the performance, output, and environmental impacts of the remaining facilities,” the group wrote.
Beyond Plastics noted that the recent closures were more evidence that the industry is not technically feasible.
“‘Chemical recycling’ is doing virtually nothing to address the enormous — and rapidly growing — plastics crisis. Instead, it’s setting communities up to deal with job losses, major environmental burdens, and wasted public subsidies,” the group wrote.
