Global flood of plastics, chemical recycling can turn the tide

Since China banned the import of waste plastics, other countries have no longer used the traditional method of mechanical grinding and remelting to recycle plastics. Some companies have begun to propose chemical recycling of plastics, but ecologists have doubts about this.

China has been the world's largest importer of plastic waste since 1992. Overall, it imports 45% of the world's plastic waste every year. But in 2018, China implemented a ban on the import of waste plastics.
According to data from the World Economic Forum, the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic each year, but only 14-18% is recycled, and the plastic recycling rate in some countries is even lower.
Companies specializing in the chemical recycling of plastics, such as Brightmark, Plastic Energy, and Agilyx, believe that chemical recycling can provide hope for getting rid of pollution.
Chemical recycling can break down plastics into useful components to make new materials. But not all experts support this approach.
Jiang Jianguo, a professor at the School of Environment of Tsinghua University, told the Satellite News Agency: “In fact, our traditional waste plastic recycling and treatment technologies are relatively mature. The application ratios of incineration and landfilling are relatively high, including chemical technologies such as plastic regranulation. There are also many researches on the project. However, there are still some obstacles in engineering, such as the control of secondary pollutants, especially cost issues, which will have some impact on the promotion and application of new technologies."
He also pointed out: “Some new plastic recycling technologies are more of a forward-looking research, or a technical reserve. If they are applied on a large scale to solve the recycling problem, they will be inconsistent with those just mentioned. The obstacles are closely related, including the added value of secondary products, the balance of costs and benefits of the entire process, and the control of new secondary pollutants. Therefore, on the whole, the more mature traditional processing technology is currently the solution The main way to control the discharge of waste plastics on a larger scale."
World Economic Forum experts believe that not all plastics can be decomposed by chemical methods, and this method is expensive and not all economies can afford it. In addition, the environmental impact of this method is still controversial.