More Recycling Lies: What the Plastics Industry Isn't Telling You About "Chemical Recycling"
March 2025 | Natural Resources Defense Council
For decades, the plastic industry has promised that recycling would solve the problem of plastic waste, yet the plastic crisis continues to grow. The dismal U.S. plastic recycling rate continues to hover around 5 percent. Globally, plastic use is projected to almost triple by 2060, relative to a 2019 baseline.
Now the plastic industry is doubling down on its deceptive recycling claims—promoting incineration and other toxic methods for end-of-life plastic management under the misleading term “chemical recycling” (also greenwashed as “advanced recycling” and “molecular recycling”). The truth is these approaches largely fail to recycle plastic. Their expanded use will only lead to more toxic pollution of our air and water and more plastic waste in landfills and incinerators. Meanwhile, the industry hopes that production of new plastic will continue to grow, unrestricted, because the public’s concerns will be eased by this new promise of “chemical recycling.”
NRDC’s new issue brief “More Recycling Lies” confirms and expands on our previous findings: So-called “chemical recycling” is mostly plastic incineration.
