The Fraud of Advanced Recycling

The report characterizes "advanced recycling" as a rebranding of chemical recycling, asserting that the plastics industry uses the term to greenwash its image and avoid regulations on virgin plastic production. It argues that chemical recycling is not a new technology, is economically unviable, cannot effectively process mixed post-consumer waste, and has a higher environmental footprint than mechanical recycling. The document further claims that the industry uses deceptive "mass balance" accounting to create a false appearance of circularity while primarily producing fuels rather than new plastics.

• Advanced recycling is not a novel technology but a rebranding of chemical recycling, which the plastics industry has pursued with little success since the 1970s, including failed attempts by companies like DuPont, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi in the 1990s.
• Chemical recycling is failing to scale at the pace promised by industry commitments; for example, ExxonMobil's Baytown, Texas facility has processed only 70 million pounds of plastic in three years despite a goal of 1 billion pounds annually by 2026.
• Contrary to industry claims that it can handle mixed post-consumer waste, chemical recycling processes are typically limited to clean, uniform post-industrial or pre-consumer scrap because contaminated feedstocks reduce output quality and process yields.
• Chemical recycling is highly energy-intensive and generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, often resulting in a higher environmental footprint than mechanical recycling.
• The industry's claim of circularity is undermined by the fact that chemical recycling primarily produces fuels rather than new plastics; NREL research indicates only 1-14% of plastic waste processed via pyrolysis or gasification becomes new plastic feedstock.
• The plastics industry uses "mass balance" accounting to deceptively overstate recycled content, allowing products with little-to-no actual recycled material to be labeled as circular.

APA

Allen, D. (2025). The Fraud of Advanced Recycling. Center for Climate Integrity. https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Advanced-Recycling-2025.pdf

Chicago

Allen, Davis. The Fraud of Advanced Recycling. Center for Climate Integrity, 2025. https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Advanced-Recycling-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Allen |first1=Davis |title=The Fraud of Advanced Recycling |publisher=Center for Climate Integrity |date=May 2025 |url=https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Advanced-Recycling-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{allen2025fraud, author = {Allen, Davis}, title = {{The Fraud of Advanced Recycling}}, institution = {Center for Climate Integrity}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Advanced-Recycling-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }