Chemical recycling of plastics is an umbrella term for processes that use heat, pressure, chemicals, and/or other agents (e.g., enzymes) to create chemical products from plastics. As the scale and scope of plastic pollution grows, there has been increasing interest in the potential of chemical recycling technologies to break down plastics into chemical products that can be used to make fuels, other chemicals, or new plastics. Proposals for, and construction of, chemical recycling facilities have increased globally, entailing significant public and private investments and potential impacts that range from the planetary to the local community scale.
Chemical recycling technologies include pyrolysis, gasification, solvolysis and solvent-based processes. Each technology has different requirements for energy and chemical inputs, and also generates different outputs. Along with chemical outputs that may be marketed as fuels or chemical feedstocks, chemical recycling processes variously generate air pollution, hazardous waste, and other wastes that must be disposed of.
In this webinar, Dr. Veena Singla discussed the basics of chemical recycling and health concerns with different technologies, giving examples from existing facilities in the U.S.
Dr. Nihan Karali discussed the energy input, material recovery/loss, technological limits, and emissions from common chemical recycling technologies for plastics.
Featured Speakers
Nihan Karali, PhD works at the intersection of energy, material, and environmental impacts of industrial production systems. She focuses on identifying sustainable, non-polluting, and safe pathways for industrial production and consumption, including plastics production and recycling. Her recent research demonstrating that 75% of plastic production-related greenhouse gas emissions occur upstream of polymerization has been cited in over 100 international media outlets. The report has also been extensively cited in global plastic treaty related discussions and talks to fundamentally support expanding the treaty scope to encompass the full lifecycle. Her broader expertise includes energy consumption and environmental impact across sectors including heavy industry, chemicals, transport, and appliances. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering.
Veena Singla, PhD is an affiliate at the University of California, San Francisco Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and a Senior Fellow with Halt the Harm Network. She consults for non-profits and academia on environmental health science and policy. Her research investigates how toxic chemicals and pollution related to systems of materials use, production, and disposal, including plastics, threaten the health of impacted communities, especially those experiencing environmental injustices. Her work seeks to address health disparities linked to harmful environmental exposures using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating environmental health, exposure science, public health, and policy expertise. She focuses on advancing comprehensive solutions in collaboration with communities that center public health, racial and health equity. She received a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley in chemistry and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of California, San Francisco.
This webinar is hosted in partnership with the Physicians and Scientists Network Addressing Plastics and Health (P-SNAP).