More than 90% of plastic packaging in this country ends up in a landfill or in rivers, lakes and oceans. It breaks into tiny pieces, making its way into the soil and the marine food chain.
“We’ve put so much plastic into the environment that it’s literally in the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the food that we eat," says John Hocevar, a biologist with Greenpeace. "Plants take it up through their root systems.”
Plastic is made with petroleum and there are thousands of varieties. Only a few are easily recycled, but the industry is pouring money into processes known as advanced or chemical recycling.
“We think that 65% of the 1.3 million tons that’s currently being landfilled in Virginia – we think we can recover that,” says Brett Vassey, president and CEO of the Virginia Manufacturers Association.
The processes used in advanced recycling involve subjecting plastic to high pressure and high heat in the absence of oxygen, causing plastic to break down into petroleum-based fuel and raw material for making new forms of plastic. The American Chemistry Council and plastic manufacturers have promoted the idea to lawmakers and the public.
“Advanced recycling, sometimes called chemical recycling breaks down used plastics into their chemical building blocks," says the narrator of a promotional video. "Think of a child’s toy house. Its building blocks can be assembled, disassembled and reassembled again and again.”
Last session members of Virginia’s General Assembly were dazzled by this seemingly simple and effective way to reduce plastic waste, and they voted to reclassify the industry as manufacturing rather than waste management. As a result, it now qualifies for economic incentives from the state, and Brett Vassey says one company has already committed to building in Cumberland County.
“Braven Environmental is out of New York City," he says. "They’re under construction now. They’re building the first plant of its kind.”
The company is in line to collect more than a quarter of a million dollars in state economic incentives, but Cumberland County says ground has not been broken, and Braven says it doesn’t talk about projects in development. That didn’t surprise Claire Arkin who speaks for a group called the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives or GAIA.
“Of the 37 so-called chemical recycling facilities that were proposed since the early 2000’s in the U.S. only three are currently operational, and none are known to have successfully recovered plastic to produce new plastics on a commercial scale,” she explains.
What they can do, she adds, is turn plastic into fuel oil and burn it, producing greenhouse gases.
Arkin and other critics think the industry is using the appealing idea of advanced recycling to keep on making money.
“The same industry that’s pushing chemical recycling is also planning on quadrupling plastic production by 2050,” she says.
Arkin and Hocevar argue governments need to transition Virginia and the nation away from plastic, but at the manufacturers association, Brett Vassey isn’t buying it.
“When you just ban things, you also ban the benefits. You know we want lighter vehicles. Plastics. We want homes that are energy efficient. Plastics. We want our drugs and we want our food preserved. Plastics!” he says.
As this debate continues, small stores have opened in Staunton and Charlottesville selling alternatives to throw-away plastic products and liquid for those who prefer to reduce, reuse, recycle and refill. We’ll stop by and see what’s for sale tomorrow.
