During the December 2022 lame-duck session, the Michigan legislature passed a law allowing the pyrolysis of plastics, over the opposition of Sierra Club and the entire environmental community. The so-called “chemical recycling process” or pyrolysis provision was added at the last minute to a bill on recycling which had been in the works for many years and which includes many long overdue provisions to support recycling. Following addition of the pyrolysis language, Sierra Club joined with 30 local, state and national organizations calling on Governor Whitmer to veto the legislation after it passed both houses, but it was signed into law.
Pyrolysis means burning plastic waste to create more plastic. In a recent article, National Geographic described pyrolysis technology as follows: “plastics are shredded and melted at lower temperatures than gasification and in the presence of even less oxygen. The heat breaks plastic polymers down into smaller hydrocarbons, which can be refined to diesel fuel and even into other petrochemical products—including new plastics.”
In a Reuters article dealing with pyrolysis, several experts pointed out problems with pyrolysis. In addition to consuming large amounts of energy, pyrolysis can release toxins such as dioxins. Pyrolysis has not been proven to produce high-quality fuel or clean plastics from mixed plastics. The plastics created through pyrolysis are of generally far lower quality than the original product.
Plastic is cheap, causing much of it to be discarded into the environment, creating horrible plastic contamination problems. Pyrolysis will not solve this problem and the simple reason is economic. Recycling plastic through pyrolysis is much more expensive than making plastic with virgin material.
Pyrolysis can never be a sustainable answer to plastic pollution, as discussed in LowImpact.org here. As explained in the blog by Andrew Rollinson, “pyrolysis is an energy consuming process: more energy has to be put in to treat the waste than can actually be recovered. It can never be sustainable.”
If people believe plastic can truly be recycled, they will continue to buy and discard plastic into the environment. Find out more about ending plastic pollution by contacting Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com.