Advanced recycling can help us recycle a lot more plastics
Here’s how we plan to do it
Today’s recycling systems can recover some used plastic. But not anywhere near enough.
That’s what makes burgeoning private investments in new recycling technologies so exciting.
These technologies can dramatically increase the types and amount of plastic that can be recycled.
Which reduces the need for fossil resources and keeps plastic out of landfills. And our environment.
It’s called advanced recycling.
These technologies turn used solid plastic into its gas or liquid raw materials to be remade into brand new plastic for use in virtually any plastic product or packaging.
More than 90% of plastics aren’t being recycled. America’s plastic makers are investing in new technologies to change that. Advanced recycling is a breakthrough for reclaiming used plastics.
Here are five things you need to know about advanced recycling. Many people in the industry use the term “advanced recycling.” It means taking plastics back to their molecular form so they can be reprocessed into new products. Every week you take your trash and put it out at the curb. Imagine if that litter were dollar bills — you’d pick it up. That’s what we’re doing. We’re creating value for something that has no value.
Not all used plastic can go through the mechanical recycling process. That’s what’s really exciting about advanced recycling — it allows you to address hard-to-recycle plastics that can’t be recycled today. Advanced recycling is going to help eliminate plastic waste that currently goes to landfills, so we can use fewer natural resources in our products.
In the next 10 years, advanced recycling will have a strong foothold in the industry. It’s clearly the future. If you want to make a real dent in plastic recycling, advanced recycling is one of the top ways to do it — along with having good infrastructure.
Learn more about new technologies changing how we recycle, reuse, and remake plastics.
The plastics recycling industry is investing billions of dollars in these technologies and has launched dozens of projects designed to divert millions of tons of used plastic per year from landfills.
Multiple large consumer product companies already create packaging using recycled plastics created by these technologies. And they are clamoring for more to meet sustainability goals.
Hundreds of companies have committed to make more of their packaging recyclable and to use more recycled content. For more info, visit U.S. Plastics Pact.
Advanced recycling can help these companies meet their sustainability goals.
Watch some of the people making sustainable change by helping bring advanced recycling technologies to life.
Meet Jeremy: The Disruptor
As President of Alterra, he’s deploying new technologies to recycle previously difficult-to-recycle plastic, again and again.
Meet Natalie: The Finder
Natalie specializes in finding used plastics to remake into new plastics, many of which had previously been difficult to recycle.
What’s needed to make plastic recycling work better? A team effort.
To recycle plastic, an interwoven chain of players must work in concert. The plastic recycling chain can be viewed as a virtuous circle, in which each player enables the next.
LEARN MORE About Advanced Recycling
Take a deeper dive and learn more about how advanced recycling can tackle the 90% of plastics that aren’t recycled today.
Fact Sheets
The following series illustrates how advanced recycling turns used plastic into new plastic and provides more information about the environmental profile of this new manufacturing technology.
Insights
Find out what’s happening in Advanced Recycling and how we’re making sustainable change.
Podcasts
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Episode 46
Plastics Policy: Pivotal Moments in 2024
Ross Eisenberg, President, America's Plastic Makers, American Chemistry CouncilRoss Eisenberg, president of America’s Plastic Makers®, tackles bold solutions to modernize recycling and reduce waste… and he’s looking for dance partners.
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Episode 45
Building Prosthetics with Hands of Gratitude
Matt Campana, CEO, Hands of Gratitude and Gina Oliver, Senior Director, Automotive, American Chemistry CouncilComing together to transform lives. On this special episode of Sustainably Speaking we’ll hear from Matt Campana, CEO of Hands of Gratitude, on how his organization brings people together to assemble prosthetic hands for people in need around the world.
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Episode 44
Recycling Electronics
Cody Oliver, Senior Director, Sustainable Solutions at evTerraWhile electronics devices have become an integral part of our everyday lives, Cody Oliver is working to make recycling these devices just as common. On this episode, we’ll hear more about how the plastic in our electronics is being diverted from landfills and repurposed into new materials.
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Episode 43
(Un)Covering the Global Recycling Industry Part 2
Adam Minter, Author & Bloomberg Opinion ColumnistPaper or plastic? It turns out the answer is not so black and white. In the second episode of our two-part series, Adam Minter, award-winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books on global recycling, dives into this great sustainability debate.
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Episode 42
(Un)Covering the Global Recycling Industry Part 1
Adam Minter, Author & Bloomberg Opinion ColumnistIn the first installment of our two-part episode on Sustainably Speaking, author and Bloomberg columnist Adam Minter shares his remarkable journey–from working in his family’s scrap yard to becoming an award-winning journalist and author of two critically acclaimed books uncovering details about the world’s waste industry. In this episode, hear Adam discuss his global adventures in recycling and his mission to get the facts out.