Recycled polypropylene pellets at a PureCycle Technologies plant in Ironton, Ohio. Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Big companies have not earned our trust, especially when it comes to plastics. So, our thanks to Hiroko Tabuchi for the tough questions in this New York Times article:

There’s an Explosion of Plastic Waste. Big Companies Say ‘We’ve Got This.’

By 2025, Nestle promises not to use any plastic in its products that isn’t recyclable. By that same year, L’Oreal says all of its packaging will be “refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable.”

And by 2030, Procter & Gamble pledges that it will halve its use of virgin plastic resin made from petroleum.

To get there, these companies and others are promoting a new generation of recycling plants, called “advanced” or “chemical” recycling, that promise to recycle many more products than can be recycled today.

Crushed plastic waste at the PureCyle plant. Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and L’Oréal have expressed confidence in the company despite its early setbacks. Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

So far, advanced recycling is struggling to deliver on its promise. Nevertheless, the new technology is being hailed by the plastics industry as a solution to an exploding global waste problem.

The traditional approach to recycling is to simply grind up and melt plastic waste. The new, advanced-recycling operators say they can break down the plastic much further, into more basic molecular building blocks, and transform it into new plastic.

PureCycle Technologies, a company that features prominently in Nestlé, L’Oréal, and Procter & Gamble’s plastics commitments, runs one such facility, a $500 million plant in Ironton, Ohio. Continue reading →