Addressing the plastics problem with infinite recycling

Posted: February 07, 2025

When you throw your empty plastic water bottle into a recycling bin, it might be collected and taken to a material recovery facility. There, it’s separated from the aluminum cans, glass and paper, and further sorted by plastic type. Then similar plastics are batched together, and taken to another facility, where they are shredded, washed and sorted. For recyclable plastics, the small pieces are then either shredded into flakes or heated to form small pellets.^[1] Only then does it go on to become a new product, from a new drink bottle to carpets, flowerpots or plastic bags.

Of course, that’s if it gets recycled at all. Many types of plastic are not recyclable through conventional means and end up incinerated or landfilled. And much of the plastic that could be recycled never makes it to a recycling plant due to issues including lack of services or contamination. In the U.S., for example, only 30% of recyclable plastic water bottles end up being recycled.

Plastic recycling rates vary massively across the world, from around 5-6% in the U.S. to up to 40% in the EU.^[2] Each year, Europe generates almost 32 million tons of plastic waste.^[3] In the US, each inhabitant is estimated to generate more than 220 kilos of plastic waste a year, the vast majority of which goes to landfill.^[4] Alongside the obvious environmental concerns, increasing numbers of countries are introducing taxes and legislation around creating and managing plastic waste.

How is most plastic recycled?

In Europe, 99% of recycled plastic goes through a mechanical recycling process.^[5] Mechanical recycling involves shredding or crushing plastic before remelting it into granulate, which is then used to make new products. Because this process changes the structure of plastic, it means products can only be recycled a few times. Many plastics also can’t be recycled via this means—it’s predominantly used for PET and HDPE plastics, which are used in things like drink bottles. It can’t be used on lots of other types of plastics, such as colored or hard plastics and the process requires cleaned and sorted plastics. Enter chemical recycling.

What is chemical recycling?

A method that involves turning plastics back into their component chemicals and molecules is starting to gain popularity as an alternative approach. While it’s more complex than mechanical recycling, chemical recycling works with more types of plastic, requires less sorting, and means that in theory, plastics can be recycled infinitely as the process doesn’t degrade their quality. Chemical recycling is a term that describes several emerging technologies, which are seen as a circular solution to plastic production.^[6]

Inside Eastman’s billion-dollar recycling plant

In 2022, Eastman Chemicals announced plans for a billion-dollar plastic recycling facility in Normandy, France. There, it plans to use its polyester renewal technology (PRT) to process up to 110,000 tons of difficult-to-recycle plastic waste that would otherwise be incinerated each year.

Eastman is already using these technologies at its facility in Kingsport, Tennessee. There, an advanced recycling process called methanolysis converts polyesters—found in things like colored and opaque plastics and polyester-based clothing—back to their basic monomers, which can then be used to create new materials. The company says that the molecules produced are indistinguishable from materials made with non-recycled content.

Using pre-and post-consumer waste polyester allows Eastman to recycle products that would otherwise go to landfill or be downcycled (recycled waste that ends up being of lower quality and functionality than the original product). Eastman found its plastic created by methanolysis had a 29% lower global warming potential than its traditional fossil-based plastic.^[7]

^{Source: https://www.eastman.com/en/sustainability/environmental/circularity/circular-solutions/carbon-renewal-technology}

Eastman also carries out carbon renewal recycling, which uses a broader mix of plastic waste, from mixed plastics to textiles, and converts the mixture back to molecules. This forms part of the company’s goal of recycling more than 250 million pounds of waste plastic annually by the end of this year, and more than 500 million pounds annually by 2030. It plans to expand its molecular recycling technology to a new site in Texas. Here, Eastman plans to power its recycling with thermal batteries fed by renewable energy, further decreasing its carbon footprint.^[8]

The company says that as well as reducing landfill, chemical recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions. By using waste plastic as a raw material to replace conventional fossil-based feedstocks, Eastman’s carbon renewal recycling may reduce associated emissions by 20% to 50%, depending on the type of plastic and how it’s transported to the recycling facility.^[9]

According to Eastman's Media Center, its molecular recycled plastic has already been used in a variety of applications, including to produce luxury refillable lipstick packaging, Patagonia t-shirts, and automotive parts.

Is this the future of plastic recycling?

Critics argue that chemical recycling is not the answer to our plastics problem as it's expensive, energy-intensive and releases toxic chemicals.^[10] Several smaller chemical recycling companies have gone bust in recent years. Nevertheless, cost doesn’t appear to be stopping larger businesses from pouring money into the technologies and new facilities.

Chemical recyclers counter that mechanical recycling alone is not going to combat our plastic problem and say that chemical recycling creates a circular economy for hard-to-recycle plastics. They argue that there is considerable demand for recycled plastics as legislation increases and governments implement mandates for recycled materials. Alongside these factors, in many use cases, we simply don’t have good alternatives to plastic. Demand for plastic is unlikely to decrease any time soon.

At current rates, global emissions from plastic production could triple to account for one-fifth of the Earth's remaining carbon budget by 2050.^[11] While the world needs to work towards decreasing new plastic production, chemical recycling does mean plastic is being created without using new crude feedstock. In a world predicted to produce over a billion metric tons of plastic waste a year by 2050,^[12] while we work on decreasing our reliance on plastic, reducing the virgin resources going into brand-new plastics can only be a good thing.

[1] https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle/plastic-recycling
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20241024-3#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20EU%20recycled,and%20Slovenia%20(both%2051%25)
[3] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics_en
[4] https://www.statista.com/topics/5127/plastic-waste-in-the-united-states/#topicOverview
[5] https://plasticseurope.org/fr/knowledge-hub/the-circular-economy-for-plastics-a-european-overview/
[6] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210510-how-to-recycle-any-plastic
[7] https://info.eastman.com/rs/820-JEE-456/images/PRT%20Methanolysis%20LCA%20Summary%20Report.pdf?mkt_tok=ODIwLUpFRS00NTYAAAGX_kSNEzm16cdlfztItiNc5lJaiY7ajMTTaMkjgm4R7oz4seelZ6z--Cw5pe0XvPdpK835AsiAa05dDukvEuHnKGPcn0uMpQ_WDl8b5IE7fRQ
[8] https://www.eastman.com/en/sustainability/molecular-recycling-facilities/longview-texas/project-overview
[9] https://www.eastman.com/content/dam/eastman/corporate/en/sustainability/environmental/circularity/carbon-renewal-lca-infographic.pdf
[10] https://theweek.com/energy/1022784/the-controversy-of-chemical-recycling
[11] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/18/plastic-production-emission-climate-crisis
[12] https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/