Advanced Recycling of Plastics

Introduction

The United States has employed many innovations to increase the rates of recycling and conservation of resources in product lifecycles. Over the last few decades, mechanical processing has been the primary method for recycling plastic packaging and other plastic products. However, recent innovations have created new opportunities to transform plastics through thermal and chemical processes. These technologies can reduce the amount of plastic waste that goes to landfills or is improperly disposed of in the environment and can reduce the need for new raw materials in manufacturing processes.

In the early 1900s, the metals and paper industries began to recycle in earnest using slogans such as “waste as wealth” to promote the idea that discarded materials had economic value. In the 1960s, the first curbside collections of metals, yard waste, and paper began to emerge around the country. Over the last few decades, cardboard, mixed paper, office paper, and food and beverage cans were increasingly processed to make new steel, aluminum, and paper products. This shift has reduced the need for energy intensive raw materials and led to significant improvement in recycling rates in the municipal solid waste stream (almost 70% for paper and paperboard and over 30% for metals by 2018).

North America has a large global plastic footprint and produced roughly 19% of global plastic products in 2015 with a wide range of uses including those in packaging, household and consumer products, construction materials, and vehicle components. Global production of plastics is projected to almost triple by 2060, intensifying pressures on waste disposal. Now, technologies for recycling plastic are evolving like advancements in metal and paper recycling in the last century.

Plastics are a large portion of municipal and industrial solid waste streams (trash). In 2018, EPA estimated that plastics represented almost 20% of the municipal solid waste disposed of in landfills or combusted for energy recovery, and only a small proportion (around 9%) of plastics in the municipal solid waste stream were recycled. Note: EPA has not estimated the amount of plastic waste in the industrial waste stream that is recycled.

Currently, mechanical recycling is the predominant method of plastic recycling, and it includes sorting, cleaning, shredding and melting plastics without altering the physical structure of the chemical building blocks of plastic materials. Mechanical recycling has some limitations, due in part to the variability of the plastic which can lead to inconsistent properties in recycled plastics. This creates challenges to the use of recycled materials in new products when compared to raw materials.

What Advanced Recycling Is

Advanced recycling uses chemical and thermal treatment processes to break down the polymeric structures of plastics into feedstocks that can be recycled into new products. Advanced recycling processes can also be used for types of plastics that are not amenable to traditional mechanical recycling. These advanced recycling processes have the potential to complement mechanical recycling by increasing overall recovery of plastic material and diverting materials that would otherwise be landfilled.

Current Technologies

Chemical or thermal treatments of plastics result in purified polymers, monomers, oligomers, chemical feedstocks, or fuels. These outputs can be virgin-equivalent monomers/feedstocks or can be used to reduce virgin resource use. In addition, these technologies can accommodate types of plastics that are too contaminated (e.g., with oil, grease or food) or too complex (e.g., multi-layered plastics) for mechanical recycling, or which would otherwise degrade during processing.

The main categories of chemical and thermal treatment technologies include:

Conversion -- a type of thermal treatment process (such as pyrolysis, hydrothermal treatment, and gasification) that converts plastics into diverse products (e.g., hydrocarbons, syngas). While conversion can process a variety of plastics for feedstock, polyolefins such as polypropylene, high-density polyethylene, and low-density polyethylene are usually the target feedstock. These types of plastics are commonly used for insulation, shipping materials, food packaging, automotive parts, medical devices, textiles, and other consumer goods. Several U.S. companies have pilot and early commercial-scale pyrolysis facilities to process plastic waste. Pyrolysis involves high temperature (typically 400-800°C) treatment in the absence of oxygen, producing pyrolysis oil, hydrocarbon gases, and char. These conversion processes are different from the waste-to-energy process, which involves the direct burning of municipal solid waste, and may include plastics, in a combustion chamber at temperatures above 1160°C with excess air. In a waste-to-energy process, the heat released from burning the waste converts water to steam, which is then sent to a turbine to produce electricity.
Depolymerization -- a chemical treatment process that uses an organic solvent to break bonds in polymeric plastics, forming monomers that can be used as building blocks to create new plastics. According to a 2021 Closed Loop Partners report, examples of plastics that can be depolymerized include polyethylene terephthalate, polyamides, and polylactic acid. These types of plastics are used in textiles, food packaging, automotive parts, and industrial applications. Methanolysis is an example of a depolymerization process that heats plastics under pressure with methanol and a catalyst to break apart plastic polymers into monomers. Methanolysis has been employed by some companies in the U.S.
Purification -- a chemical treatment process that uses an organic solvent to dissolve polymeric plastics without breaking the chemical bonds between monomers. The dissolved polymers can then be further processed to selectively remove additives or contaminants, producing a purified polymer with the same properties and quality as virgin polymer. The current feedstocks for this technology are polystyrene, polypropylene, high-density polyethylene, and low-density polyethylene. These types of plastics are commonly used for insulation, shipping materials, packaging, automotive parts, medical devices, textiles and other consumer goods.

Key Considerations

Aluminum, steel, and paper recycling have been successful in recovering resources and providing economic benefits. How can advanced recycling improve the recycling rate of plastic products while also increasing economic benefits?

U.S. manufacturers and other key parties in the plastics value chain are investing in the recycling system, including chemical and thermal approaches.
Growth in recycling processes could be realized if the nation’s recycling infrastructure (collection and sorting) is expanded to increase access for recyclers to attain used plastic feedstock and recycle it into new products.
Policies, like Extended Producer Responsibility approaches, can help increase recycling yields by increasing plastic collection and infrastructure for recycling. Policy approaches should be developed with input from stakeholders, implemented transparently, and have a manageable scope for regulators and implementers. The waste materials used by advanced recycling facilities will need to be monitored to ensure consistent quality and quantity of the incoming waste plastics.
The resulting oils/monomers need to meet qualified product specifications to ensure suitability for making new plastic resins.
Advanced recycling companies should consider clearly communicating inputs, yields, allocated recycled content, processing feasibility for various types of plastic waste, and environmental impacts and benefits to regulators and communities.
Regulators at the state and federal level should ensure that facilities meet their regulatory requirements.

Related EPA Actions

EPA Considers Revising Other Solid Waste Incinerators Definition of “Municipal Waste Combustion”

As part of an existing March 17, 2026, proposal to harmonize existing Clean Air Act regulations for incinerators, EPA is taking public comment on revising the Other Solid Waste Incinerators definition of “municipal waste combustion unit” to remove the reference to “pyrolysis/combustion units.” The comment period for this proposal closed on May 4, 2026.

EPA Withdraws 2023 Significant New Use Rules

On July 8, 2025, EPA withdrew the proposed Significant New Use Rules released in June 2023 for 18 chemicals derived from plastic waste for use in producing products such as transportation fuels.