{"id":22,"date":"2024-06-27T21:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T21:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plasticmakers.org\/plastic-recycling-facts\/?page_id=22"},"modified":"2025-02-14T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T15:12:55","slug":"what-is-advanced-recycling","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/plasticmakers.org\/plastic-recycling-facts\/what-is-advanced-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Advanced Recycling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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What Is \u2028Advanced Recycling?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Advanced plastics recycling, also called chemical recycling, refers to several different technologies that convert post-use plastics into their original building blocks, to produce new plastics, chemicals, and other valuable products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Advanced recycling can help recycle more types of plastics,<\/strong> including plastics used in products and packages that mechanical recycling can\u2019t process. It gives value to hard-to-recycle plastics like plastic bags, films and wrappers that typically are landfilled right now. Advanced recycling facilities are also processing carpet, artificial turf, clothing, and other durable goods that would have gone to landfill.  Advanced recycling can reprocess plastics over and over in a circular system. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Advanced Recycling 101 <\/h4>

Advanced recycling is instrumental in helping to recycle more types of plastics, including mixed, layered or soiled materials. <\/p>

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What\u2019s the difference between advanced, chemical, and molecular recycling? What are \u201ccircular plastics\u201d?\u00a0<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t<\/span><\/div>
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Advanced recycling is a broad term that encompasses multiple technologies that break down plastic to the molecular level, into liquid or gaseous raw materials, which is why the term \u201cmolecular recycling\u201d is sometimes also used. Advanced recycling technologies usually involve chemical processes, unlike the physical processes used in mechanical recycling<\/a>. Hence advanced recycling is also called \u201cchemical recycling.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These technologies support a circular economy for plastic, in which plastic is sustainably produced, designed, used, reused, and recycled \u2013 again and again. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What are the benefits of advanced recycling?\u00a0<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t<\/span><\/div>
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Advanced recycling helps reduce plastic waste and progress toward sustainability goals for communities, states, and brands striving to make better choices. Advanced recycling technologies enable more plastics to be turned into a wide variety of new products \u2014 including highly regulated applications such as food- and medical-grade packaging \u2014 instead of landfilling them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the benefits of advanced recycling in this fact sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why is it \u201cadvanced\u201d?\u00a0<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t<\/span><\/div>
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Advanced recycling is a set of manufacturing processes that transform the chemical structure of post-use plastic products back to their basic chemical or molecular components. Many of the plastics suited for advanced recycling are traditionally hard to recycle by mechanical recycling<\/a>. These technologies are advancing the existing recycling capabilities through chemistry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advanced recycling can help: <\/p>\n\n\n\n