Turning plastic into fuel doesn’t solve the plastic problem | Editorial
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board | 6/21/21 | nj.com
Our world is inundated with plastic, and we are unable to recycle more than a fraction of the 36 million tons that the US produces every year.
We know this much, however: The wrong way to deal with the problem is to give petrochemical companies a free pass on New Jersey’s environmental laws. That is essentially what a fast-tracked bill will do, and it’s hard to know what is more perplexing – the proposal itself or its author.
Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), whose record on the environment is stellar, says it is time for New Jersey to open its mind to “chemical recycling” – or advanced recycling, as the industry calls it – a method that uses intense heat, pressure and solvents to break down old plastics to be remade into new plastics or fuel.
Theoretically, this is the workaround for plastics that are not recyclable through the “mechanical” method, which is how we deal with our Coke bottles and Tide jugs. McKeon’s intentions, as always, are laudable: We only recycle 8 percent of our plastic, and we have to explore ways to reduce the waste that piles up in our landfills, chokes our waterways, and kills our wildlife.
But volumes of data say chemical recycling is no solution at all, and environmentalists suggest that McKeon’s proposal gives tacit permission to the plastic industry to produce more plastic.