Chemical recycling — an umbrella term used to describe processes that break plastic waste down into molecular building blocks with high heat or chemicals and convert them into new products — will not help reduce plastic pollution, but rather exacerbate environmental problems, according to a new report by nonprofit environmental advocacy groups Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN).
The report comes just weeks before the United Nations Environment Programme meeting slated to take place in Nairobi in mid-November, where officials from countries worldwide will convene for a third round of negotiations to develop an international legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution.
Less than 10% of the seven billion tons of plastic waste humans have generated has been recycled, according to the UN Environment Programme.
That echoes U.S. trends: available Environmental Protection Agency data showed that while the country generated 35.7 million tons of plastics in 2018, just three million tons, or 8.7%, were recycled. Some other accounts, such as a 2022 report from Beyond Plastics, found the U.S. plastic recycling rate is even lower — between 5% to 6%.
“This is the perfect report for delegates to read on the plane,” Judith Enck, president of the anti-plastics advocacy group Beyond Plastics that co-developed the report, told Environmental Health News (EHN). “Currently, the draft of the treaty does not allow for chemical recycling, but we know that the plastics and chemical industry is working hard to change that.”
“A dangerous deception”
In mid-November the United Nation Environment Programme will meet in Nairobi for a third round of negotiations to develop an international legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution.
Credit: UNEP
To investigate the impacts of chemical recycling, the IPEN and Beyond Plastics report analyzed peer-reviewed literature as well as publicly available data on the 11 existing chemical recycling plants in the U.S., Lee Bell, mercury and persistent organic pollutants policy advisor at IPEN who is also the author of the new report, told EHN.
The analysis concluded that chemical recycling is “a dangerous deception” to solving the plastic waste problem as it is “inefficient, energy-intensive and contributes to climate change.” Even at full capacity, the report noted, the 11 chemical recycling facilities in the U.S. would handle less than 1.3% of the plastic waste generated annually within the country.
The report also claimed chemical recycling to be “dangerous and dirty,” emitting toxic waste back into the environment along the process. According to the analysis, typical emissions from pyrolysis, one of the most prevalent methods used in chemical recycling that involves breaking plastics down with high heat, include carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, chlorinated and brominated dioxins, furans and acid gasses. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances , also known as PFAS, “may also be a contaminant of concern in chemical recycling output, but little information is available on the subject,” the report pointed out.
Furthermore, as part of the report, Beyond Plastics said it analyzed the 5-mile radius around each of the 11 chemical recycling plants using the EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool. The results showed that eight of the plants are located in areas with lower-income communities while “seven have higher-than-average concentrations of people of color than the rest of the state and country,” the report noted.
“Researchers worldwide have all agreed that the amount of data released by the chemical recycling industry is insufficient to determine its full impacts,” Bell said.” But what we have been able to deduce from the information that is available is that there are some very, very hazardous impacts associated with the processes.”
Controversies of chemical recycling
For many years, chemical recycling, also dubbed advanced recycling, has often been touted by proponents as a potential saving grace for the plastic pollution problem by creating “a new life cycle” for used plastic products.
However, some opponents contend that chemical recycling is nothing more than an industry ploy to support the ongoing expansion of plastic production and a tactic to deflect environmental responsibilities.
“It has been sold and hyped as a solution to the plastic pollution problem,” said Bell. “Unfortunately, chemical recycling does not play any significant role in addressing the plastic pollution issue.”
The results from the new report mirror the eyebrows raised by some researchers and lawmakers on the benefits and impacts of chemical recycling.
A September report published by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the official body for intergovernmental cooperation in the Nordic region, for instance, asserted that chemical recycling presents “drawbacks such as higher energy consumption, lower material-to-material yields, increased greenhouse gas emissions and greater investment requirements that could create ‘lock-in’ effects, disincentivizing better solutions in the future.”
Downgraded regulatory controls
Meanwhile, within the U.S., there has been “a significant push politically” from the petrochemical industry to promote and deregulate chemical recycling on the state level, Bell said.
As of now, 24 states in the country have passed legislation to regulate chemical recycling as manufacturing instead of waste disposal or incineration, garnering applause from industry lobby groups.
By doing so, Bell argued that the state lawmakers are effectively downgrading the regulatory controls on the chemical recycling industry, particularly on the level of scrutiny for hazardous emissions and waste.
Recognizing the potential pitfalls of chemical recycling, in a report released in July, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee “encourages” the EPA to maintain regulating chemical recycling technologies as municipal waste combustion units under the Clean Air Act.
“We want state lawmakers to recognize the shortcomings with [chemical recycling] and not to deregulate these facilities,” Beyond Plastics’ Enck said, adding that the report, drawing from its conclusions, outlined several additional call-for-actions for stakeholders.
These proposals include declaring a national moratorium on new chemical recycling plants, ending incentives for establishing chemical recycling plants, as well as implementing extensive analyses and testing of existing chemical recycling plants’ environmental and performance metrics.
In addition, since most U.S. chemical recycling facilities are purportedly not converting plastic waste to new plastic input materials but instead fossil fuels, Bell said the report also urged policymakers to consider banning the plastic-to-fuel projects altogether, given their environmental and health risks are “really too significant to allow them to continue.”
“You are using fossil fuel energy to heat and melt these plastics and depolymerize them and then you are creating a petrochemical-based fuel at the end of the process which is going to burn,” Bell said. “It is an incredibly inefficient and polluting process and it becomes a petrochemical Merry-Go-Round.”
The Biden administration is evaluating further restrictions on oil drilling in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, potentially designating more areas off-limits to development.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will seek public input on expanding “special areas” in the 23-million-acre reserve, which could restrict new oil exploration.
The move follows the approval of the controversial Willow oil project, which could add up to 199 new wells in the reserve.
The evaluation will involve consulting with Indigenous tribes and communities reliant on the reserve's resources for subsistence.
Key quote:
“We have a responsibility to manage the western Arctic in a way that honors the more than 40 Indigenous communities that continue to rely on the resources from the Reserve for subsistence.”
— Tracy Stone-Manning, BLM Director
Why this matters:
Increased restrictions on drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska could significantly impact oil production and the local economy, while aiming to protect vital ecosystems and Indigenous ways of life amid rapid climate change.
CAMERON PARISH, La. — Late into the night, John Allaire watches the facility next to his home shoot 300-foot flares from stacks.
He lives within eyesight of southwest Louisiana’s salty shores, where, for decades, he’s witnessed nearly 200 feet of land between it and his property line disappear into the sea. Two-thirds of the land was rebuilt to aid the oil and gas industry’s LNG expansion. LNG — shorthand for liquified natural gas – is natural gas that's cooled to liquid form for easier storage or transport; it equates to 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state. It’s used to generate electricity, or fuel stove tops and home heaters, and in industrial processes like manufacturing fertilizer.
In the U.S., at least 30 new LNG terminal facilities have been constructed or proposed since 2016, according to the
Oil and Gas Watch project. Louisiana and Texas’ Gulf Coast, where five facilities are already operating, will host roughly two-thirds of the new LNG terminals – meaning at least 22 Gulf Coast LNG facilities are currently under construction, were recently approved to break ground or are under further regulatory review.
Although the U.S. didn’t ship LNG until 2016, when a freight tanker left, a few miles from where Cameron Parish’s LNG plants are today, last year the country became the global leader in LNG production and export volume, leapfrogging exporters like Qatar and Australia. The
EIA’s most recent annual outlook estimated that between the current year and 2050, U.S. LNG exports will increase by 152%.
Allaire, 68, watches how saltwater collects where rainwater once fed the area’s diminishing coastal wetlands. “We still come down here with the kids and set out the fishing rods. It's not as nice as it used to be,” he told
Environmental Health News (EHN).
That intimacy with nature drew Allaire to the area when he purchased 311 acres in 1998. An environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran, he helped lead environmental assessments and manage clean-ups, and although retired, he still works part-time as an environmental consultant with major petroleum companies. With a lifetime of oil and gas industry expertise, he’s watched the industry's footprint spread across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile shores and beyond. Now that the footprints are at the edge of his backyard, Allaire is among a cohort of organizers, residents and fisher-folk in the region mobilizing to stop LNG facility construction. For him, the industry’s expansion usurps the right-or-wrong ethics he carried across his consulting career. For anglers, oil and gas infrastructure has destroyed fishing grounds and prevented smaller vessels from accessing the seafood-rich waters of the Calcasieu River.
From the view of Allaire’s white pickup truck as he drives across his property to the ocean’s shore, he points to where a new LNG facility will replace marshlands. Commonwealth LNG intends to clear the land of trees and then backfill the remaining low-lying field.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.”
Community bands together
John Allaire, left, purchased 311 acres in Cameron Parish in 1998, and has watched the oil and gas industry's footprint spread to his property.
Credit: John Allaire
During an Earth Day rally in April, community members gathered in the urban center of Lake Charles to demand local oil and gas industries help deliver a safer, healthier future for all. In between live acts by artists performing south Louisiana’s quintessential zydeco musical style, speakers like James Hiatt, a Calcasieu Parish native with ties to Cameron Parish and a Healthy Gulf organizer, and RISE St. James organizer Sharon Lavigne, who’s fighting against LNG development in rural Plaquemines Parish near the city of New Orleans, asked the nearly 100 in attendance to imagine a day in which the skyline isn’t dotted by oil and gas infrastructure.
Not long ago, it was hard to imagine an Earth Day rally in southwest Louisiana at all. For decades, the area has been decorated with fossil fuel infrastructure. Sunsets on some days are highlighted by the chemicals in the air; at night, thousands of facilities’ lights dot the dark sky.
“It takes a lot of balls for people to start speaking up,” Shreyas Vasudevan, a campaign researcher with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, told EHN in the days after the rally. In a region with its history and economy intertwined with oil and gas production, “you can get a lot of social criticism – or ostracization, as well – even threats to your life.”
Many are involved in local, regional and national advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.
“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.” - John Allaire, environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran
But environmental organizers are fighting a multi-billion-dollar industry with federal and state winds at its back. And LNG’s federal support is coupled with existing state initiatives.
Under outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a term-limited Democrat — the state pledged a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Natural gas, which the LNG industry markets as a cleaner-burning alternative, is cited as one of the state’s solutions. Louisiana is the only state that produces a majority of its carbon emissions through fossil fuels refining industries, like LNG, rather than energy production or transportation. Governor Edwards’ office did not return EHN’s request for comment.
This accommodating attitude towards oil and gas industries has resulted in a workforce that’s trained to work in LNG refining facilities across much of the rural Gulf region, said Steven Miles, a lawyer at Baker Botts LLP and a fellow at the Baker Institute’s Center on Energy Studies. Simultaneously, anti-industrialization pushback is lacking. It’s good news for industries like LNG.
“The bad news,” Miles added. “[LNG facilities] are all being jammed in the same areas.”
One rallying cry for opponents is local health. The Environmental Integrity Project found that LNG export terminals emit chemicals like carbon monoxide –potentially deadly– and sulfur dioxide, of which the American Lung Association says long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, cancer, and damage to internal or female reproductive organs.
An analysis of emissions monitoring reports by the advocacy group the Louisiana Bucket Brigade found that Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass facility had more than 2,000 permit violations.That includes exceeding the permit’s authorized air emissions limit to release nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds 286 out of its first 343 days of operation.
The Marvel Crane, the first liquid natural gas carrier to transport natural gas from the Southwest Louisiana LNG facility, transits a channel in Hackberry, Louisiana, May 28, 2019.
“This is just one facility,” at a time when three more facilities have been proposed in the region and state, Vasudevan said. Venture Global’s operational LNG facility — also known as Calcasieu Pass — “is much smaller than the other facility they’ve proposed.”
In an area that experienced 18 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Laura in 2020 — and just weeks later, struck by Hurricane Delta — Venture Global is planning to build a second export terminal Known as “CP2,” it’s the largest of the roughly two dozen proposed Gulf LNG export terminals, and a key focal point for the region’s local organizing effort.
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” Hiatt told EHN of locals’ nostalgia for a community before storms like Rita in 2005 brought up to 15 feet of storm surge, only for Laura to repeat the damage in 2020. Throughout that time, the parish’s population dipped from roughly 10,000 to 5,000. “But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG. Folks in Cameron think that's going to bring back community, bring back the schools, bring back this time before we had all these storms — when Cameron was pretty prosperous.”
“Clearly,” for the oil and gas industry, “the idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports,” Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana, told EHN.
Helping fishers’ impacted by LNG is about “actual survival of this unique culture,” Cooke said.
In a measure of organizers’ success, she pointed to a recent permit hearing for Venture Global’s CP2 proposal. Regionally, it’s the only project that’s received an environmental permit, but not its export permit, which remains under federal review. At the meeting, some spoke on the company’s behalf. As an organizer, it was a moment of clarity, Cooke explained. Venture Global officials “had obviously done a lot of coaching and organizing and getting people together in Cameron to speak out on their behalf,” Cooke said. “So, in a way, that was bad. But in another way, it shows that we really had an impact.”
“It also shows that we have a lot to do,” Cooke added.
Environmental organizers like Alyssa Portaro describe a sense of fortitude among activists — she and her husband to the region’s nearby town of Vinton near the Texas-Louisiana border. Since the families’ relocation to their farm, Portaro has worked with Cameron Parish fisher-folk.
“I’ve not witnessed ‘community’ anywhere like there is in Louisiana,” Portaro told EHN. But a New Jersey native, she understands the toll environmental pollution has on low-income communities. “This environment, it’s so at risk — and it’s currently getting sacrificed to big industries.”
“People don’t know what we’d do without oil and gas. It comes at a big price,” she added.
Southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish is one of the state’s most rural localities. Marine economies were the area’s economic drivers until natural disasters and LNG facilities began pushing locals out, commercial fishers claim.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990 back,” James Hiatt , a Healthy Gulf organizer, told EHN. "But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG."
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
For the most part, Cameron Parish’s life and economy has historically taken place at sea. As new LNG facilities are operational or in planning locally, locals claim the community they once knew is nearly unrecognizable.
Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News
A disappearing parish
The stakes are seemingly higher for a region like southwest Louisiana, which is the epicenter of climate change impacts.
In nearly a century, the state has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land to coastal erosion. In part driving the state’s erosion crisis is the compounding impacts of Mississippi River infrastructure and oil and gas industry activity, such as dredging canals for shipping purposes, according to a March study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Cameron Parish could lose more land than other coastal parishes over the next 50 years. A recent Climate Central report says the parish will be underwater within that time frame.
On top of erosion and sea level rise impacts, in August, 2023, marshland across southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish burned. The fires were among at least 600 across the Bayou State this year. Statewide, roughly 60,000 acres burned — a more than six-fold increase of the state’s average acres burned per year in the past decade alone.
But while the blaze avoided coastal Louisiana communities like Cameron Parish, the fires represented a warning coming from a growing chorus of locals across the region — one that’s echoes by the local commercial fishing population, who claimed to have experienced unusually low yields during the same time, according to a statement from a local environmental group. At the site of the Cameron Parish fires are locations for two proposed LNG expansion projects.
"The idea is to transform what was once the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports.” - Cindy Robertson, an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana
It was an unusual occurrence for an area that’s more often itself underwater this time of year due to a storm surge from powerful storms. For LNG expansion’s local opposition, it was a red flag.
As the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has noted prior, the confluence of climate change’s raising of sea levels and the construction of LNG export terminals — some are proposed at the size of nearly 700 football fields — are wiping away the marshland folks like Allaire watched wither. Among their fears is that the future facilities won’t be able to withstand the power of another storm like Laura and its storm surge, which wiped away entire communities in 2020.
Amidst these regional climate impacts, LNG infrastructure has shown potential to exacerbate the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. For the most part, LNG is made up of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Among the 22 current LNG facility proposals, the advocacy group Sierra Club described a combined climate pollution output that would roughly equal to that of about 440 coal plants.
The climate impacts prompt some of the LNG industry’s uncertainty going forward. It isn’t clear if Asian countries, key importers of U.S. LNG, will “embrace these energy transition issues,” said David Dismuke, an energy consultant and the former executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies. Likewise, European nations remain skeptical of embracing LNG as a future staple fuel source.
“They really don't want to have to pull the trigger,” Dismukes added, referring to Europe’s hesitation to commit more resources to exporting LNG from the American market. “They don't want to go down that road.”
While there will be a tapering down of natural gas supply, Miles explained, “we’re going to need natural gas for a long time,” as larger battery storage for renewables is still unavailable.
“I'm not one of these futurists that can tell you where we're going to be, but I just don't see everything being extreme,” Dismukes said. “I don't see what we've already built getting stranded and going away, either.”
For now, LNG seems here to stay. From 2012 to 2022,U.S. natural gas demand — the sum of both domestic consumption and gross exports — rose by a whopping 43%, reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Meanwhile, in oil and gas hotbeds like Louisiana and Texas, natural gas demand grew by 116%.
Throughout 25 years, Allaire has witnessed southwest Louisiana’s land slowly fade, in part driven by the same industrial spread regionally. Near where the front door of his travel trailer sits underneath the aluminum awning, he points to a chenier ridge located near the end of the property. It’s disappearing, he said.
“See the sand washing over, in here?” Allaire says, as he points towards the stretches of his property. “This pond used to go down for a half mile. This is all that's left of it on this side.”
Indonesia's rapid expansion of its nickel industry, driven by demand for electric vehicle batteries, is leading to significant deforestation and environmental damage.
Indonesia has dramatically increased its nickel smelting capacity, now responsible for over half of the global nickel ore supply.
Deforestation has more than doubled around new nickel smelters, leading to increased landslides, polluted rivers, and loss of wildlife habitats.
Local communities suffer from the environmental impacts, with reduced agricultural yields, contaminated water, and loss of income from traditional hunting and fishing.
Key quote:
"The damage to the environment is devastating. Deforestation has significantly increased ... rivers are polluted, mangroves are cut to develop smelter areas, coastal areas and coral are being damaged by the smelters."
— Timer Manurung, chairman of Auriga
Why this matters:
Indonesia’s nickel production is vital for the global electric vehicle market, but it comes at a high environmental cost. Sustainable practices and cleaner energy sources are essential to mitigate these impacts and support local communities.
Fueled by rising ocean temperatures, hurricanes are intensifying faster, lasting longer, and becoming less predictable, posing new challenges for communities worldwide.
Climate change is extending hurricane seasons and increasing their intensity, with warmer oceans providing more energy for storms.
Hurricanes are slowing down, leading to prolonged rainfall and increased damage in affected areas.
Shifting hurricane tracks are bringing extreme storms to regions unaccustomed to such events.
Key quote:
"Because we can't suddenly turn off climate change and have everything go back to the way it was. There's an inertia to the system that we can't really get past. And so adaptation is going to be a big part of it."
— James Kossin, climate and atmospheric scientist, NOAA, retired
Why this matters:
Hurricanes are no longer playing by the rules. As climate change cranks up the Earth's thermostat, these once somewhat predictable storms are turning into wild cards, packing unpredictable punches that leave communities scrambling to pick up the pieces. Read more: Robbie Parks on why hurricanes are getting deadlier.
Former President Donald Trump has chosen Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, known for his skeptical stance on climate change, as his vice-presidential running mate, raising concerns among environmental advocates.
Vance, a first-term senator and author of "Hillbilly Elegy," was chosen over other prominent Republicans.
He has focused on rail safety and is a lead sponsor of the bipartisan "Railway Safety Act."
Vance has consistently dismissed climate change concerns and opposed green energy policies, favoring traditional energy sources and criticizing Chinese environmental practices.
Key quote:
"J.D. Vance is Donald Trump’s dream come true — a climate denier who is all too happy to do Big Oil’s bidding and pad their profits at the expense of working people.”
— Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power.
Ed Miliband will spearhead the UK’s efforts at this year's crucial climate summit in Azerbaijan, marking a significant change from the Conservative government's approach.
Ed Miliband, energy security and net zero secretary, will lead the UK delegation at COP29 in Azerbaijan this November.
His involvement is expected to bring strong UK leadership to the negotiations, which will focus on climate finance for developing countries.
The geopolitical landscape, including conflicts and the upcoming US election, will influence the summit's outcomes.
Key quote:
"The fact that the multilateral negotiations will be led by the secretary of energy himself instead of delegating to a junior minister denotes recognition of the importance of the process as we near the halfway point in this decisive decade. We could not be more pleased with the news."
— Christiana Figueres, founding partner of the Global Optimism thinktank
Why this matters:
Effective leadership at COP29 means more than just high-level pledges; it requires a nuanced approach that balances diplomacy, innovation, and accountability. Leaders must build on the momentum from previous conferences, such as COP26 in Glasgow, where key agreements on methane reduction and deforestation were made. However, these commitments need to translate into action, with clear timelines and measurable outcomes.
As mounds of dredged material from the Houston Ship Channel dot their neighborhoods, residents are left without answers as to what dangers could be lurking.
