EnviroPolitics Blog

Chemical recycling aims to scale fast in an effort to manage plastic waste, even as questions remain

Chemical recycling proponents are investing in major projects to scale up the technology. Yet lingering policy and business factors will affect the trajectory of this fast-developing recycling sector.

A worker stands in front of ExxonMobil's advanced recycling facility in Baytown, Texas. — ExxonMobil’s “advanced recycling” facility in Baytown, Texas, which started operations in 2022, is meant to process more than 80 million pounds of plastic a year. It’s one of numerous large-scale chemical recycling projects in progress in the U.S. Courtesy of ExxonMobil

Megan Quinn, Senior Reporter, Waste Dive

Chemical recycling is at a turning point in proving its financial viability and ability to scale to meet the demands of a changing plastics recycling industry.

Years ago, many of the technologies that made chemical recycling possible were still in the developmental stage, with companies focusing on getting their work out of the lab and into the real world.

But now companies such as Dow, Eastman, LyondellBasell, ExxonMobil, PureCycle, Cyclyx, and others are investing millions of dollars a year in scaling those technologies, saying the investments will speed up the process of keeping hard-to-recycle plastics out of landfills and funnel them into feedstocks for new products.

Chemical recycling, also called advanced recycling or molecular recycling by the plastics industry, is a broad term for numerous processing technologies that break down recovered plastics to the molecular level to become “building blocks” for new plastics or other products. Common techniques include pyrolysis, gasification, and depolymerization.

Companies have poured millions of dollars into expanding capabilities in recent years, and they say those investments are finally paying off as they move on from small-scale experiments and open new facilities or ink offtake agreements. Mechanical recyclers and waste companies are also getting involved. Meanwhile, recently passed laws could make it easier to open facilities in certain states.

But some environmental and health experts say chemical recycling companies aren’t able to manage the volumes of material they claim, fueling an unsustainable reliance on plastic instead of taking steps to reduce or eliminate plastic use. They also worry the facilities create harmful health impacts.

Read the full story here

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UAW strike at Mack Trucks affects garbage truck manufacturing

The 3,900-member strike includes a plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley where Class 8 refuse trucks are assembled, including the company’s CNG and electric models.

LR Electric by Mack Trucks for NYC Sanitation — *The Mack LR Electric truck, pictured here, is among the refuse trucks affected by the strike. NY Sanitation* Dept.

By Jacob Wallace, News Dive

United Auto Workers members are now striking five plants after rejecting a tentative agreement with Mack Trucks, the union announced Sunday. One of the plants, in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, assembles all of Mack’s Class 8 heavy-duty trucks, including the Mack LR Electric.

Mack Trucks, a division of Volvo Group, offered a 19% wage increase and some healthcare, pension, and time off concessions in an agreement rejected by 73% of union members on Sunday. Key ongoing demands for the workers include cost of living adjustments, the abolition of a tiered retirement system, and progression to the top union wage.

About 3,900 Mack Trucks members began picketing this week, bringing the total number of struck workers to more than 30,000. The UAW has seen the number of its members on strike swell since contracts expired with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis at the end of the day on Sept. 14.

Read the full story here

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Gov. Newsom signs CA consumer electronics right-to-repair law

New law is among the strongest in the country, advocates say. Newsom vetoed a separate right-to-repair bill for powered wheelchairs

A close-up of an employee using tools to repair a cell phone in a warehouse.

Photo courtesy of ERI

By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

California’s new law for consumer electronics is among the strongest in the country, advocates say. Newsom vetoed a separate right-to-repair bill for powered wheelchairs

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Right to Repair Act on Wednesday, which requires certain consumer electronics manufacturers to make repair tools and parts widely available to device owners and third-party repair businesses. Some electronics recyclers and refurbishers see the law as a way to divert the material from disposal and bring in new business.

The law, which takes effect in July 2024, covers devices like televisions, radios, and home appliances. It also imposes fines on manufacturers that don’t comply. These measures make it one of the strongest right-to-repair laws in the country, said iFixit, a bill supporter.

Newsom vetoed a separate right-to-repair bill for powered wheelchairs this week, citing complexities with the state health care system. That bill would have prohibited the state Department of Health Care Services from requiring prior authorization for certain kinds of powered wheelchairs.

Read the full story here

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EPA settles with Slack Chemical over RTK reporting

From the Environmental Protection Agency

NEW YORK (October 11, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with Slack Chemical Company Inc. to resolve alleged violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) at the company’s facilities in Carthage and Saratoga Springs, New York. The settlement includes a $231,300 civil penalty.

“EPA is working to ensure that regulated facilities comply with the “Right to Know” requirements to ensure companies properly report their storage, use, and releases of certain chemicals to federal, state, tribal, territorial and local governments,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia.

“These reporting requirements are important because they are used to help communities prepare for and protect against potential risks posed by potentially dangerous chemicals.”

Slack Chemical Company, Inc. is a supplier of bulk chemicals. The company stores, repackages, and distributes bulk chemicals to municipalities and industry across the Northeast from three New York facilities using a substantial delivery fleet of tractor trailers.

According to EPA, the company failed to properly submit forms required by EPA and New York State with information about how much ammonia, methanol, nitric acid, and toluene were managed at and released from the company’s facilities during 2019 and 2021.

Under the terms of the consent agreement and final order with EPA, Slack has voluntarily instituted a corporate compliance plan to prevent the recurrence of EPCRA reporting violations. For example, to improve compliance, the company will add a written procedure detailing the steps required to identify Toxic Release Inventory chemicals, calculate reportable quantities and subsequent submittal.

EPCRA increases the public’s knowledge and access to information about chemicals at certain regulated facilities which must report on the identity of their chemicals, quantities of chemical releases into the environment, and waste management activities. States and communities, working with facilities, can use the information to improve chemical safety and protect public health and the environment.

For more information about EPA’s enforcement program, visit: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/basic-information-enforcement

For more information about EPCRA, visit: https://www.epa.gov/epcra

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter now known as X and visit our Facebook page. For more information about EPA Region 2, visit our website.

For more information about EPA Region 2, visit our website.

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Proposed NJ settlement over Ciba Giegy site faces court challenge

By Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News

State environmental authorities announced a settlement agreement with chemical giant BASF earlier this year to restore natural resources damaged by decades of pollution at the Ciba-Giegy Superfund site in Toms River. Now, Toms River and the local environmental advocacy group Save Barnegat Bay have gone to court to block the settlement deal.

The settlement would preserve 1,000 acres of the site and calls for BASF to pay the state $500,000 and make parts of the land available for public access, with new park amenities. The deal also allows BASF to pursue future development on 250 acres at the site.

But the deal has been heavily criticized in the local community, where the original pollution is widely speculated to have been the cause of a rash of childhood cancer cases in the 1980s and 1990s. They argue the state is failing to uphold strict environmental protections, and is essentially selling out the local community by making a weak deal with BASF instead of taking the company to trial.

Al Telsey, an attorney representing Save Barnegat Bay in the new litigation, says experts hired by the environmentalists have estimated nearly $1 billion worth of natural resource damages to have been caused at the site, far more than the $192 million estimated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP declined to comment; a spokesperson cited a policy against commenting on pending litigation.

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Indicted NJ Sen. Menendez’s worst nightmare? Pa’s John Fetterman

Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.)

By Jonathan D. Salant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON — Indicted U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s worst nightmare in Congress is a fellow Democrat from a neighboring state: John Fetterman.

The freshman Pennsylvania Democrat was the first senator in either party to call for Mr. Menendez’s resignation after his indictment last month.

And he hasn’t stopped. Since then, Mr. Fetterman:

• Likened Mr. Menendez to Tony Soprano, the fictional New Jersey mob boss.

More. Pa. Democrats are calling on New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez to resign

• Refused to attend a Senate Democratic caucus meeting to hear Mr. Menendez’s side of the story.

• Suggested Mr. Menendez learn about former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who maintained his innocence after being convicted of trading city contracts for campaign donations.

“It’s on brand for his style of politics,” Democratic political consultant Modia “Mo” Butler said.

Mr. Fetterman, the hoodie-and-shorts-wearing senator whose sartorial style caused a furor on Capitol Hill last month, hasn’t minced words since returning to the Senate in April following treatment for depression.

He described the far-right House Freedom Caucus as “losers” and “peckerheads” during the recent fight over shutting down the government.

Bud Light has been under fire from conservatives, including some congressional Republicans, for partnering with a transgender woman, Dylan Mulvaney, who has more than 10 million followers on TikTok.

And he sent a case of Bud Light to House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., who launched impeachment hearings against President Joe Biden even as House Republicans admit there is no evidence yet of wrongdoing on his part.

Read the full story here

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