Wood Mackenzie claims that if chemical recycling technology is widely adopted, by 2040, as many as half of the global plastic packaging can be recycled.
The market insight company stated that to make the plastic value chain more sustainable, the industry must focus on reducing the amount of poorly managed waste and reclaiming as much value as possible.
The company added that to do this, more investment must be spent on chemical recovery.
According to a plan simulated by Wood-which takes into account the consumption of plastic packaging, the collection rate, and the best treatment route for different plastic combinations, packaging types and regions-chemical recycling can double the proportion of plastic packaging currently reprocessed.
"So far, mechanical recycling has been the best way to gain value by converting plastic waste into other useful applications-however, this method has its limitations." Wood's director of polyolefins Ashish Chitalia said.
"One of the benefits of chemical recycling technology is to reduce the extraction of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions, and by acting as a supplement to mechanical recycling, it makes plastic waste that is difficult to recycle valuable."
Chitalia acknowledged that not all stakeholders generally praise the positive effects of chemical recycling. Some people worry about the environmental impact of chemical recycling, while others think it is a kind of green cleaning.
"Despite opposition, if implemented cautiously, chemical recycling can improve our ability to deal with plastic waste, ensuring that more plastic waste can be reprocessed into higher-value products (such as food-grade applications), and some other plastic waste processing Compared with alternative methods, reduce carbon emissions.” Chitalia added.
Wood said that the simulation results (see the figure below) show that both the total recovery rate and the absolute amount have strong growth potential. Taken together, the company found that the proportion of plastic packaging reprocessed into the energy and petrochemical value chain will more than double, from the current 22% to 50% in 2040.
According to analysis, the plastic-to-material (P2F) route (more suitable for processing the dominant polyolefin applications) is expected to grow at twice the rate of plastic-to-plastic (P2P), and will account for 17% of plastic packaging in 2040. The annual rate is 8%.
Chitalia said: "Take the United States as an example today, only 13% of plastic packaging is recycled, another 17% is incinerated, and 70% is landfilled. If chemical recycling can be implemented, a large amount of waste will be transferred to the most appropriate treatment route. It has a considerable positive impact on the sustainability of the petrochemical industry."
"In countries like the United States, this may completely change the way plastic waste is managed."
Wood believes that recovery rate, investment and value chain integration are the three major elements for the development of chemical recovery.
As currently 40% of plastic waste is poorly managed and lost to the environment, the company believes that it needs to increase the collection rate to provide raw materials for chemical recycling facilities, especially in middle-income countries.
However, according to statistics, to achieve a plastic packaging recycling rate of 25%, an investment of 50 billion US dollars by 2040 will be required to provide sufficient chemical recycling capacity.
Since most of the cost of processing plastic waste comes from waste collection and classification, the insight company also found that by integrating waste management, refining and petrochemical facilities, shortening the distance between waste leaving consumers and re-entering the value chain may be Produce considerable economies of scale.
In view of the level of activities in the form of pilots, cooperation and investment, chemical recycling will play an important role in solving plastic waste.
Chitalia said: "The situation is developing rapidly. At present, major plastic manufacturers have begun to commercialize chemically recycled plastics. For example, in October 2020, Chevron Phillips became the first company to announce the production of recycled PE."
"There are so many activities in developing technologies and establishing partnerships, which shows that people are confident that these technologies will play an important role in the coming years."
Source: Chemical Network
