Exxon Mobil says advanced recycling could solve plastic waste

When California Atty. General Rob Bonta filed Filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil and accused the oil company of misleading the public. Regarding the effectiveness of plastic recycling, several allegations arose over the company’s marketing of a process called “Advanced Recycling”.

In recent years – as long-standing efforts to recycle plastics have faltered – Exxon Mobil has touted advanced recycling as a groundbreaking technology that would overcome the plastics crisis. Company executives and petrochemical trade organizations have used the phrase in radio spots, TV interviews, and a variety of online marketing materials. In a 2021 blog postKaren McKee, president of product solutions for Exxon Mobil, painted a particularly promising picture.

“Imagine your discarded yogurt containers being turned into medical equipment for your next doctor’s appointment, and then into the dashboard of your next fuel-efficient car.”

But despite its eco-friendly name, the Attorney General’s trial Advanced recycling was condemned as a “public relations stunt” that involves superheating large-scale plastics to convert them into fuel. At Exxon Mobil’s only “advanced recycling” facility in Baytown, Texas, only 8% of plastic is turned into new material, while the remaining 92% is processed into fuel that is then burned.

Bonta’s lawsuit seeks a court order to stop the company from engaging in what it describes as “advanced recycling”, arguing that the vast majority of plastics end up being destroyed. Many environmental advocates and policy experts hailed the legal action as a major step toward ending greenwashing by Exxon Mobil – the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymers.

“There’s nothing ‘advanced’ about it,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. “This is a hoax. This has been a deception for half a century. If they were able to recycle plastic polymers back into virgin resin, they would have already done so. But they are using the same technology that we have had since the Industrial Revolution. It’s a coke oven, a blast furnace.”

As more research comes to light on the limitations of plastic recycling, revelations have shaken the public’s confidence in what to put in their blue, curbside recycling bins.

“The public perception of what is recyclable does not match the reality when it comes to plastics,” said Daniel Coffey, a UCLA researcher who studies plastic waste in Los Angeles County. “For so long recycling was considered a foolproof solution for single-use plastics. And the most obvious answer to why is that the public was told so. They were told so by a massive, industry-backed misinformation campaign.

Advanced recycling, also called chemical recycling, is a broad term that typically involves heating or dissolving plastic waste to create fuels, chemicals, and waxes – a fraction of which can be used to remake plastics. Is. The most common technologies yield only 1% to 14% of plastic waste, according to a 2023 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. According to Bonta, Exxon Mobil has used reclaimed plastics extensively for fuel production while increasing its virgin plastics production.

“You’re essentially pulling oil, turning it into plastic, and then burning more oil to turn that plastic back into oil, which you then burn,” Coffey said.

Bonta alleges that Exxon Mobil has owned a patent on this technology since 1978 and that the company is falsely describing it as “new” and “advanced.” This practice was tested in the 1990s, but did not continue beyond the testing phase. This came to the fore again recently when the company learned that the term “advanced recycling” has become popular among the public at a time of growing concern over the increasing amount of plastic waste.

In December 2022, it announced the launch of an enhanced recycling program. In an interview with a Houston television station in 2023, a representative from Exxon Mobil spoke about the Baytown facility.

“When (customers) buy a plastic product off the shelf, they want to know it’s sustainable,” the Exxon Mobil employee said. “This is a big game change for the industry – but I would say society in general.”

In response to Bonta’s lawsuit, Exxon Mobil said its Baytown facility had processed 60 million pounds of plastic into “usable raw materials” that otherwise would have gone to landfill. Experts say this figure is low compared to the company’s annual production capacity of 31.9 billion pounds.

Nationwide, the Baytown plant is one of about five facilities that break down plastic by exposing it to high heat, according to Last Beach Cleanup, a nonprofit that works on plastic pollution.

California has adopted some of the strictest laws in the country to reduce single-use plastics. Perhaps the most consequential, SB 54, requires the state to sell 25% less single-use plastic packaging and foods. It also prevents waste incineration and similar practices from being counted as recycling.

Since most plastic cannot be recycled, state officials have struggled to figure out how to dispose of this material. California previously exported most of its plastic waste to China. But China has banned the import of most foreign plastics, almost eliminating the used plastic market.

Nearly 5.4 million tons of plastic waste headed to California landfills in 2021, according to Latest State Settlement DataThat same year, more than 625,000 tons of waste was sent to so-called “transformation” facilities, where waste is incinerated, or incinerated in the absence of oxygen (a process called pyrolysis).

California does not track data on how much of the trash burned was plastic, according to CalRecycle, the state agency that oversees waste management. The state also does not maintain detailed information on how much plastic waste is exported to other states and how they process it.

Maria West, spokeswoman for CalRecycle, said, “California’s vision for a waste-free future focuses on reducing, reusing and intentionally designing products with systems for efficient collection and remanufacturing into new products. Let’s come back.”

If the state is sincere in its pledge to eliminate waste, environmental advocates say the state needs to phase out single-use plastics.

“You can’t do anything with plastic but trash it or burn it,” Williams said. “You can try to reuse it, but you will never be able to compete with virgin stock. And yet, you have to shred it, make pellets, and put it in the blast furnace. How is this good for the climate? How is that better than coal?”